Walking in the school hallways was nothing new to me, I passed by the usual bunch of boys who were checking me out in my cheer uniform. You would think being 12 years old would quieten down there freaking hormones but no they were some horny animals. Nodding to some girls on the squad team with me, I opened my locker and started stuffing some books. I knew that it would be like every other normal boring day in this school with these people that I act to like and pretend to be friends with when in fact I dislike each one of these kids here. They are only friends with me or worship me because of my older brother and me being in the cheer squad.

And don’t forget about your bombshell body that no other 12 years old girl has.

Yes, my inner me, you are right.

So, you have to raise that pretty head of you and march through this day like the queen you are.

I nodded to myself, completely agreeing to what my smart subconscious said. They don’t know about the loneliness inside me nor the façade I am just putting on, so I have to keep it up and live my life as if nothing ever happened last year.

“Hey, Av!” Natalie’s sweetly sick voice brought me back from my daze.

“Nat,” I gave her a small smile as she stood in front of me reflecting my uniform.

“Did you hear?” I looked at her confused, closing my locker. She got the hint then gasped as if It was a sin not knowing what she is talking about.

“Hear what?” I hugged my book close to my chest, waiting for her to spill it out because I know she won’t be able to hold it in for too long. As you see, Natalie is the kind of girl who lives on the gossip, it’s like oxygen to her. she is the gossiper –if you would like to call it that- of the cheer squad.

“A new student just enrolled here.” So? It’s not like no students enroll every day in this fancy private school of ours.

“Oh, cool!” maybe I should read her mind and get this over with because honestly, I don’t know where is she going with all of that.

She rolled her eyes at me. “You are so lame, Av.” And you are so absurd, Nat. I wanted to tell her that but of course, I couldn’t because I was trying to keep my place as one of the populars here and going against Natalie is like signing your death form as her dad was the owner of this school. And I am weak like that and won’t afford being an outcast or a loner in this school. I wish I was like my brother and didn’t give a shit, be a bad girl as he was a bad boy. “This new student is like super-rich, but super-nerd. He is an orphan and his only uncle took him under his wing. You know who is his uncle?”

“Nope,” I lifted my brows at her with a tight smile. “But I assume you know.”

“Of course, I know. I know everything.” She giggled, the sound coming out of her mouth came out like a broken toy. “His uncle is Tyler Carter, that hot rich dude.” She said with dreamy and lustful eyes.

I furrowed my brows, not liking how a 12 years old girl thinks about a man who is older than us in that way. “And isn’t he 15 years older than us?” it was no secret to anyone in our city that Tyler Carter was one of the richest, youngest and attractive men around here. I hear a lot about him as my parents always talked on and on about how they want to try and partner up with Tyler Carter in some business. He was like a god to them and have been trying everything to get the chance to do business with him. They were greedy and selfish like that, we had loads of money and yet after everything happened they still crave more. They truly are mates and complete each other with their tattoos.

“Age isn’t an issue nowadays, Av!” She brushed me off. “you should be more open-minded.”

“right!” I mumbled. “Anywa—“ I was going to try and squeeze my way out of here and away from her when she interrupted me.

“Here he is! That’s him the nerd Carter.” I looked to where she was looking at to find a blonde shy boy who didn’t look anything like a nerd, to be honest. His clothes were basic and nothing special, his body was scrawny with pale skin, he just needed the appropriate guidance and he would be an attractive Carter the same as his uncle with their genetic grass-green eyes. “I need to be friends with him so that I can get closer to the hot Carter.” So, basically, she is using him. “Hey, you nerd Carter!” she called for him from across the hallway and his timid eyes glanced at us. “Come here, Carter boy.” She motioned to him and he started to take slow unsure steps, looking scared. “Hey, nerd.” She put on her fake smile. “I am Natalie, the cheer captain, and the prettiest girl around here.” The new boy gave her a timid smile then his eyes met with mine a faraway look in his eyes, which made me curious about what he is thinking about so with him being clueless I invaded his mind and read his thoughts.

‘Why is Natalie calling herself the prettiest girl around here when the girl beside her is definitely the prettiest one over here.’

A shadow of a smile appeared on my face when I read his thoughts. I heard that a lot and Natalie know it all well as well but with her connections, no one dared to go against her, and to be honest I don’t care whether I was known for the prettiest girl around here or not, so let her have it all.

“And this is Ava,” Natalie introduced me as The blonde’s eyes never left mine.

“Hi, it’s nice meeting you.” I extended my hand to him, plastering a welcoming smile on my face as an attempt to ease his nerves and it actually worked. He doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment from Natalie and I know that once she gets what she wants from him she will get rid of him, throwing him to the hungry wolves in this school who likes to pick up on any vulnerable soul.

He took my hand in a firm shake, all his shyness fading at the moment with his green eyes dancing in happiness and confidence. Suddenly, I had this strong urge to step out of my way and protect him from people like Natalie. “HI, Ava. I am Nick, Nick Carter.” Nick, hmm? I think Nicky and I will be just great friends.

Nick… Nicky, Nick!

As if my brain was trying to wake me up, alerting me of the situation we got ourselves in. this memory that I dreamed about reminded me how I vowed to myself to always protect him and here I lost him and can’t get my eyes open to know what the hell is going on here. I felt my body vibrate, slightly moving as if we were in a car that was marching on a rocky road. Fighting the headache and the pain that spread everywhere, I managed to finally open my eyes. It was a slight opening and blurry that didn’t hint me about anything.

I tried to move my hands to find them tied with something, slowly while groaning I tried opening my eyes again to find an unfamiliar face looking down at me. “w-who are y-you?”

“I think she is waking up,” the person above me said and that’s when I noticed the bunch of soldiers surrounding me, each one of them having a seat in the moving van with me laying on the dirty floor between them.

“What a bunch of gentlemen you are,” I muttered groggily as I still couldn't feel my body. It hurts like a bitch. “Where is Nicky? And Ted?”

“Give her another dose,” another voice spoke, ignoring me. “Commander said that she tends to cause trouble so she better be asleep till we get there.”

“You are right.” The man above me went to fetch what I assumed another dose of whatever shit that made me in that state.

He came back ready to put that needle in me when I controlled his mind, making him stop. “I said where are my friends?” I didn’t have much energy but I ain’t giving up.

“She is using her superpowers, double the dose so that she won’t be able to access her powers for a while.” The earlier voice barked and that made me angrier.

“Wrong move, mate.” I venomously said then started frying the man’s mind and other ones near me, screams and yells were all around me as they were on the verge of dying. They messed with me and my friends, so they deserve it. “Where are th—“ a sharp pain spread through me as I felt the needle they stuck in my leg. I lost control over my powers and started dozing off again, “You assh—“ and everything went black once more as I started hitting another memory in the memory lane.

“what are we doing here?” I asked Natalie who was dragging me with Sasha another cheer who was an exact replica of Natalie.

“You will see.” Natalie flashed me a devilish smirk. That smirk that I am well accustomed to. it means there is trouble and she is enjoying it. She kept dragging me by the arm till we arrived at the football field, she hid us behind a wall beside the changing room, yet we still had a really good view of the field and what’s happening on it. I gasped as I took in the scene in front of me. “funny right?” she started chuckling then Sasha followed her. and now I understood why she made us hide, she didn’t want to show him that she was the villain until she takes the information she needs from him.

How the hell do they find this funny? There on the field were three boys from our class -one of them is dating Sasha- they were surrounding Nick, picking on him. They kept pushing him between each other as if he was a ball, he tripped a couple of times which resulted in a nasty cut to appear on his lip with blood pooling out of it. One of them pushed him real hard and that’s when Nick fell on the ground harshly but this time he couldn’t get up. He laid there defeated as the three boys started throwing kicks and punches at him. One of them had the powers of water so he magically brought the water from somewhere near the field and poured it all over Nick.

“We have to do something.” I fisted my hands, not liking what they are doing to him. He doesn’t deserve this.

“NO!” Natalie caught my arm in a firm grip. “that’s fun, Ava. Loosen up a little bit and enjoy it with us.”

“yeah.” I glanced at nodding Sasha, completely engrossed by them.

“Enjoy it? That’s nothing to enjoy. They are hurting him!” I took a quick look at beaten up, Nick and just then I knew what I had to do. “That’s not right!” I snatched my arm away from her and stomped to where they are, ignoring Natalie’s and Sasha’s pitty calls for me.

‘I am coming for you.’ I sent him a quick message in his head and saw him getting startled. Now he will probably know that I am a mind reader and controller.

“Leave him alone!” I said between gritted teeth as soon as I reached them. The three boys stopped what they were doing with him and looked over at me, with poor Nick on the ground looking all confused yet hopeful at me.

“Ava, honey,” Chris, a boy who I know had a crush on me and wanted so bad to date me but I always reject him, and I guess you could know why now. He neared me with a sick smirk on his face but I stood my ground. “Don’t interfere with the men’s job.” He took a strand of my dark hair between his fingers and started curling it around his finger. “Now, go and shake that cute little butt of yours in your cheer practice while we finish what we started here.”

Taking no more of his bullshit, I slapped his hand away and he almost looked shocked by that. I was always a calm and pretty gal in this school, nothing more. “I said get away from him!” the started chuckling at my threatening tone. However, their laughter switched into a set of screams and yells when I started manipulating their heads. Our powers appear when we are ten, so I don’t really have the full grasp on my powers yet but I love to read, so I am learning, along with concentrating in my classes on what they teach us regarding our powers and their history. The three bullies fell on their knees, clutching their heads with their hands. I could feel how much pain they were going in and they deserved it.

“W-we a-a-are s-sorry,…” Chris said through his pain.

“P-please, A-Ava!” Sasha’s boyfriend pleaded but I didn’t want to stop.

“Ava,” I looked at the voice calling for me to find Nick on the ground. “my mind.”

I invaded his mind picking up his hint. ‘Leave them be, they learned their lesson.’ Our eyes were in a hard stare as I was going over his request. ‘please, Ava. For me.’

‘For you.’ For him, I would do anything. I felt that strong urge to always protect him as if he was my own brother especially after feeling the sadness lurking in his mind.

I stopped my torture for them and their screams stopped. “Go!” a simple venomous command from me, sent them running away from here. I kneeled beside injured Nick and helped him sit. “Are you okay?”

“I am now.” He gave me a small smile. “Thank you, Ava.”

“don’t thank me. We are friends and that’s what friends do, they have each other's backs.”

“We are? Friends?” he seemed surprised.

“Yes, if you want to, of course.” Am I forcing myself on him?

“Of course, I want to.” He said with a huge grin. “you are the only one treating me with respect around here, without needing anything from me.”

“And you are the only one that I genuinely wanted to be friends with,” I sincerely said. “So, Nicky…”

“Nicky?” he looked at me amused.

“Yeah, Nicky.” I shrugged. “I like to give people weird nicknames, sue me.”

“Okay, Nicky it is.” He nodded with an amused smile and at this moment I knew that he will be someone I will count on for the rest of my life.

I shot my eyes open to be met with darkness and was ready to fight my way through it.