Freaks In a Petting Zoo

We were used to being unseen and if we couldn't be unseen, we’d damn sure find a way to right after. That’s why they called us “deterrents.” We were “deterred” from ever having a regular life again, from being anonymous like any other classmate, and omitted from ever not being known as the outcasts, freaks, and the notorious in our school. Our school. A school filled with only superhuman teenagers, hidden from the world, somehow, we became the outcast among the outcasts. They weren't expecting us though, that’s for sure. They weren't expecting to look up while they drunk from their red cups and eardrum-liquifying music to see us. To be honest, we were just as surprised as them. Our cover was blown.

It was Lucas’s plan, which looking back on it, I should have known wouldn't have worked out. He did get caught putting pepper spray in the school’s ventilation system. He had the whole dorm scoped out and everything, from the fire escapes, to the cameras, even to the pathways from the forest and to the back entrances. Yes, it was crowded, filled with tons of party-going super-classmates who were way past their bedtime, especially since finals were coming up, but we still had a chance to be unseen. Hoodies, masks, and some image inducers Tim somehow pulled out of his pocket would have gotten us through. It was foolproof. That was until we realized we had forgotten about the school’s local telepaths and their capacity to snoop in random by’s minds. I should know: I was one of them. 

I could detect them, and before I could get my friends to pull back, all eyes were on us, people looking up from their flashing phones, half-empty cups, and alcohol influence giggling. They stared right through our holograms. The bustling party was corpse-silent, the welcoming ambiance turned into a prison and soon-to-be arena. We were circled quicker than Jennifer could curse through her metallic teeth and before Tim could pull out some gizmo from his pocket dimension to get us out of here. Her shoulder-length maroon hair and cold stone eyes met us in the center and I knew we were screwed. She put a hand to her hips, half of her body already uncovered, but that wasn't enough to emphasize how more “defined” she was compared to her peers. Alexis Averado grinned at us with a hunger in her eyes only a predator would have to her prey. “You can give up those illusions now Macky.” 

I hated that name. The whole school started naming me that after...well...the Chess Club incident. Lucas’ slow clapping broke the silence. A grin spread across his face before the hologram faded and his luminated lime green hair met the awe-inspired party members. “Well done Watson. You figured us out. Oh whatever shall we do?” he said in his sarcastic tone. Alexis raised a hand and out of the shadows-literally, her lapdogs, the Shadow Triplet appeared three sisters who could manipulate darkness like I could control the paint on a brush. Some beefy jocks approached us as, well aiming their entertained eyes on Lucas and Tim. This wasn't going to end well for us. It was going wrong faster than I thought.

Jennifer’s holographic hand turned to a sharp chrome blade and she pointed it towards Alexis. “Touch us and I’m cutting you, you cu-”

“You guys aren't allowed here. How did you even find out about this party?” Alexis asked.

“Ahaha…” Lucas replied. “Shut Up Luke,” Jennifer gritted through her teeth. “She’s a telepath, she can figure out the rest by herself.”

“I can, but that would require liquifying your already ape-like brains and I’m having a good night-was. So which one will it be?” she waved on either side of her. “The football team who are ready to rip Luke and Condom boy apart-or my girls? They wanted to show somebody their shadow realm at least once. Maybe it’ll be tonight.”

We all looked at each other. I could smell Tim’s nervous fart as Lucas’s hair started to shine brighter. A mace appeared out of Jennifer’s hand but I still knew we were toast. Plan A was toast. Why didn't we have a plan B?

“I invited them.”

The crowd looked in the direction of the voice. Their eyes tracked the figure until he appeared in the middle of the circle. Looks like we did have a plan B. Except he was the reason we were there. He was tall, tall as in naturally and not the size of the Cyclops brothers in football, but lanky, not like Reese Gecko, but enough so that all the girls would fantasize about him, how’d he look when he wasn't wearing his robot-like helmet-and if he wasn't wearing his cut-up jeans. His spiked leather jacket brushed through the jocks and they seemed to relax their bulky muscles as he nodded to us. Eddie Engine.

Alexis sneered but wouldn’t dare let Eddie see it. She rolled her eyes, then set her face to sure-it's-fine-Eddie mode. “And you didn't tell us?”

“Remember Alexis,” Eddie approached her. “It's my party. I don't need to tell anyone anything.” his voice echoed through the hunky helmet. Nobody could see it, but I could. The small twitch in the corner of her mouth and the way her eyes glazed over for just a moment. I didn't need to read her mind to figure out what she was really feeling. “You’re not my girl anymore, remember? And…?” Eddie tapped at his helmet. “No nosy-ness going on up here anymore. Besides,” he turned to us and raised his arms. As he did, the party’s energy rose up again and people started to mutter. “We needed a little bit more entertainment. Why not have some from the school of freaks’ fellow freaks!” he yelled, sending the crowd cheering and the music blasting on.

Let’s just say, I and my friends were left dumbfounded. We stared at each other before Jennifer broke our silence up. “Come on. Let's go have some ‘fun’.” she eyed Alexis, who didn’t stop staring at us until we were gulped by the crowd and went deeper into the belly of the monster known as a high school party. Behind my embarrassment and anger at the popular jerks who called us out, thoughts swam in my head. Why did Eddie just let us into his party? Out of all the times, why now? Was it just to piss off his ex? Or was it really to brighten up the already bouncing aura of the party with the spreading news that IQuarium Academy’s Deterrents have arrived? That we were just that: entertainment?

Lucas was quick to brush that aside, even though Jennifer scowled at him for the remainder of the party, whether it was to ignore the loud whispers and stares of classmates or because she was actually pissed at him, I don't know. He just hid a grin under his hood as we settled in the cafeteria, which was littered with its share of food platters, but it seemed everyone lost their appetite when we appeared. We were Moses to a wave as they let us through, leading us to a little back area in the kitchen where we would remain moments before we disappeared.

“Not how I planned it,” Lucas said. “But step one is done.”

“Step two.” Tim finally muttered some words. We all looked at each other and I had the floor. The plan was simple: Wherever Eddie had gone, we were to find him and seek out information from him regarding his brother. Geiger Grant was one of the seniors who disappeared that night two years ago, and apparently, the last to see of him was little brother Eddie. Nine times out of ten, we wouldn't find him in our appointed prison of the kitchen, and all of us together would draw too much attention so we split up.

Bad idea, I know. A very bad idea. I just didn't see that. Not yet anyway. 

The party was not how I envisioned it. I mean, yes, flashing colored lights, alcohol, smoke from lung strangling marijuana, sweaty people, annoying laughs, and vomiting light-weights were a part of my expectations, but it was the way that I felt. Out of place. An alien in a zoo. No friends and alone. It has been a long time since I felt alone. My humiliation not so long ago did not help. Just thinking of Alexis made my body tenser than a rubber band. I wanted to just once, just once, be able to punch in her pretty bumpy nose of hers, mess up that perfect blood-red hair and see the look on her face as she realizes she had that coming. Hard to get your hands on her when she’s one of the school’s most powerful telepaths, so that was out the window. Still, I could imagine. 

My thoughts were wandering and that was bad news. Through the smoky dark haze of the party, I could feel thoughts clinging onto mine, and they were not my own. Perks of telepathy: everyone wants to share their thoughts with you. It’s hard at first, but every psionic has its ways of blocking off perverted thoughts of freshman and rugged mean thoughts of jocks, but sometimes they find their way in. It started off as a whisper, all the way until it was like a second party itself in another realm under the surface.

Look at her...there she is! Macky the Freaky...heard she was a telepath...heard she went...did he really do that to her...in chess club? Wonder if she’ll ever do that to me...wonder what it was like…? I should go talk to her...nah man...for the streets! Can't believe Eddie invited her...ugh...she’s so gross...got I wish I could get laid.

Plenty more where that came from. Some were too horrid to repeat in my mind so I cringed internally and kept on moving through the party. I decided to red cups for me as I wasn't sure what cretin decided drugging somebody like I was wise. I needed to focus on him. Finding him, but he made that hard. Eddie’s helmet somehow nullified a Psionic’s telepathy. No looking into his mind. I guess that’s what happens when you have a crazy telepath for an ex. As popular as Eddie was, the girls and boys didn’t mind. Girls thought it added mystery and the boys thought it was a...ahem…”Cold ass cosplay.” Yea, we had our firebreathers, Electro-mancers, even our own shapeshifters some were in a corner shifting their chest into different girls' boob sizes), but none compared to Eddie’s mysterious helmet. No matter where he went, the talk was on about him…

Wait…

I let my mind reach out into the dorms, looking, hearing. It was like swimming through an ocean of loud vulgar thoughts, each one illogically misplaced, horny, or otherwise on the verge of a panic attack because in their drunken or high, they realized they didn't study at all for finals tomorrow. I filtered that all out swiped them to the side like a smartphone, then focused in on Eddie. I gotta take off that helmet of his...I should tell him how I feel...wonder where he got that Nirvana shirt from...really wanna see his powers...come on show us Ed! Somebody, please pull up his shirt! Does he have a six-pack or not...let daddy be lucky tonight...gotta go talk to him…

It was like a fishing line: I just had to reel myself in. I went from the first floor, through potheads, through raging games in Uno, all the way to the third floor where through a dorm room, secluded and undisturbed, was Eddie. I shut the door to find nobody there, only a window leading to the fire escape. I could see the cloud of smoke rising to the star-filled night sky. I took a deep breath, then entered the fire escape.

There he was. He took another puff of a joint through a slit in his helmet before he saw me. He half sighed, and half exhaled. “Thought I told people to let me have a moment or two...wait…” he pointed at me. He searched for a name. “Macky? Right?”

Ugh. Like everybody else: a jerk. “You probably hate that name though.”

“Yes. I do.” I leaned on the railing to see the crowd below. “Then why do you let people call you that?”

I shrugged it off. “Why is one of the most popular kids in Iquarium Academy by himself right now?”

Eddie took a puff again, this time his glowing eyes brightening. “Believe it or not Macy, I actually hate people. Like-a lot. Took me over an hour to find this spot. Yet you found me. Gonna have to try the balcony sometime.”

“I thought you liked the attention, the notoriety. You got how many girls want to be your next?”

“You're a telepath right? You tell me.”

I scoffed. “Good point. But your ex won't let them get close to you?”

He took a long puff of his joint before flicking it down to the party below. “I don't like to talk about my business.”

“Pretty sure it's everybody’s business now.”

“Including the deterrents.”

I felt a surge of anger. I eyed the window when he corrected himself. “I didn't come up with that. Alexis did. School didn't protest against it. “

“Or course she did. That’s Alexis for you.”

“One of the reasons why we broke up.”

I eyed him. “I thought you didn't tell people about your business?”

“I think with you-I’ll be alright. Who’ll you tell it to anyway?”

“Good point. Not exactly popular like you.” 

Eddie laughed. He shook his head then leaned beside me against the fire escape. “Believe it or not, I hate that word. It's cliche and basic. Do I look basic to you?”

“You look like some ass who wanted the school's outcasts here. Make us a petting zoo. Oh, how cool you are.”

“Would you believe me if I told you I could care less about you? Or your friends?”

“I was going to give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you’d let us stay because you are actually a nice guy. I was wrong.”

“Haven't you heard?” He stood and leaned his head towards me. “Bad guys are the rage. And they’ll always be.”

“So that’s why you’re up here? To solidify your rep’? Nice play there Eddie. “

We stood in silence, watching the crowd down below, my swelling emotions dying down as Eddie pulled out another joint and lit it. He sighed, eyed me then went back to his joint. He looked at me again before cursing to himself and aiming the joint at me. “Want some?”

I looked at it, then back at him. “That depends. You're gonna tell the school Macky the Freaky is a pothead now?”

“Ah ah ah,” he waved a finger. “I’m not Alexis, remember?”

“...I’ve never smoked before.”

“Calms the nerves. Make you happy. Believe me. I got a bong for a head.”

A laugh snuck out of me. A hearty one. I guess it caught him off guard because I swear by the way his head tilted he raised an eyebrow under his helmet. “Maybe next time” I wiped a tear from my eye. “Don't worry. There’s always a next time.” he flicked the joint down at the ignorant crowd again. “That was a waste,” I replied.

“Got plenty more where that came from. So...what do you want to know?”

My heart jumped. “Excuse me?”

“I’m not dumb Macy. Macy Kim: You solve a few mysteries around the school, you and your squad lately. The ghost pranks by Todd, who framed Reese Gecko, on and on. So what do you want to know about my brother Grant?”

The whole building shook. Eddie and I looked back and it shook again. We looked at each other before we raced off down to the party floor.

Swarms of party-goers, hungry for a fight, crowded through stairwells and doorways, through windows and live feeds from their phones to see the brawl that was taking place. I would have been trampled if it wasn't for the awesome might of Eddie waving people out of his way and like a horde of ants, scurrying away from the gigantic foot. We somehow made it down to the first floor and outside, where I skimmed some minds to find one name: Lucas.

Oh fuck.

I could hear the jocks' cries for violence as I and Eddie made it to the center of the circle. Christian Vatican, as tall and hulk-like as he was, was standing over Lucas, who wiped the blood from his mouth, and a smile appeared on both of their faces. Time leaped from the crowd and drop-kicked the bully sending him into his steroid-induced friends. Tim let out a hand and Lucas got up. Tim nodded and Lucas laughed. “I’m good. But I think we messed up.”

Christian Vatican’s dirt brown eyes glowed a bright amber before his veiny fist was engulfed in flames. “The Pyrokinetic. Of course, you want to fight a pyrokinetic,” Tim muttered. “I didn't start it! He did!” Lucas pointed to him.

Through glowing hot teeth, Christian spoke. “That little pepper spray prank you did had me on the sidelines for three weeks! Three. WEEKS. Just so you know. You deserve this clapping!”

“Pause.” Lucas raised a hand. “And bring it on choad!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Tim nearly whispered. “I thought you relapsed a week ago. “

“Doesn't mean my power can't knock this COUSIN-FUCKER OUT!”

I cursed.  Around me, people cheered and hollered for blood. For our blood. “One last thing,” Tim eyed the men. “I’m never going out with you again.”