"Uh...hi?" I broke the silence with a nervous smile, my eyes scanning the room as I entered.
There were two girls sat at the edge of the bed, a boy standing beside them. I hadn't noticed before but there was also a random guy sleeping at the study desk in the corner of the room, with one girl sitting beside his resting head on the desk. I think I recognized some of them from school, they all had pretty familiar faces, but that didn't make this any less weird.
To say I was confused would be an understatement of the century, I swear.
"Hi," said the girl at the desk, a polite smile on as she pushed herself off it. She looked friendly enough, with kind hazel eyes and a warm smile. "I'm Akira, you can come sit here," she pulled out the only remaining chair in the room and placed it next to the bed.
"Right..." I took her up on the offer, bypassing the boy that was standing with a nod.
I was surprised when the guy actually spoke to me, "you want something to drink, water or juice or something?" he asked.
"What if she drinks coffee?" one of the smaller looking girls that was sitting on the bed countered.
He rolled his eyes with a small sigh and turned back to look at me, "or coffee?"
I looked between the few of them, a bit apprehensive, "I'd rather use an explanation, to be honest."
"So, I'm guessing the play excuse didn't work?" Akira asked, a slight smirk on her face as she pointed her look at the guy.
He made a face, "oh, shut up. Your role-play bullshit didn't work either."
Akira turned to me, "which one was more believable? And don't be afraid of hurting his feelings," she threw me a subtle wink and I smiled. I liked her already.
"Well," I cleared my throat for dramatic effect, "if I had to pick... probably neither. But role-play was definitely more realistic."
"We told you," the coffee girl spoke from the bed spoke before Akira could. Then she turned to me with a wry smile, "Evan and him insisted that it would work, it wasn't any of the rest of us, okay? Don't lump us up with them."
I let out a laugh at the boy's sour expression, "of course, I wouldn't."
All of them seemed to relax a little at that, and he smiled at me, "I'm Oliver, by the way."
"Alexis," I introduced myself back, although it appeared as though they knew me already. This whole situation was weird, but the people oddly didn't seem that bad.
"Oh, and I'm Jaden," coffee girl said, and then she pointed at the girl beside her, "and this grumpy thing here is Lucy."
Jaden... So Jade? Maybe she's the one who made that paper crane on the table downstairs. She looked pretty cute with those innocent brown eyes, I could definitely see her making it. Lucy on the other hand looked like the opposite, with her frown and cold, ice blue eyes directed at me. Whatever was happening here, she wasn't happy about it for sure.
Evan, who had been silently watching from the corner of the room all this time, suddenly spoke, "So, now that y'all have met her, can I just say it?"
A silence fell over the room, and the rest of them viewed me with quiet apprehension, unsure of what to do.
Akira was the first to speak. "Listen, it's not like we have a choice, right? I'm not going to tell Iris, and I know no one else will, so we just have to deal with this ourselves." Then she sighed, adding in a mumble, "plus, I know it'll be fine anyway."
Oliver gave in easily after that, "I trust Aki, what about you guys?" he turned to the two remaining girls for an opinion.
Jaden pondered over it for a bit before shrugging, "well, I don't wanna go to Iris either, so I guess this is it."
I felt like I was part of some weird set-up with me as a test-subject and them, the scientists, trying to figure out what to do with me. It certainly wasn't pleasant, but if I had to be honest, this was probably the weirdest and most interesting thing that has happened to me, like, ever.
A man almost killing my classmate, then changing his mind? The classmate has something to hide, but it turns out he's part of this huge group of kids who are all hiding something together. This was something straight out of a movie and call me weird, but I was actually enjoying it.
Lucy sighed, eyeing me with slight distaste, "you know, we haven't asked Nolan yet."
Just then, the boy that had been sleeping, stirred, his head lifting up ever so slightly, "it's good. She's just bored," he said, his voice thick with sleep.
I narrowed my eyes at his hunched figure. Was he talking about me? How could he be so accurate, what the hell?
"Told y'all," Akira chimed.
"Well, if Nolan agrees too..." Evan trailed off, his eyes on Lucy.
She sighed again, sounding more frustrated this time, "if it goes wrong, this is not my fault."
"Is that a yes?" Evan asked. Everyone except Lucy simply nodded in affirmation. That was good enough for him to continue, "So, Alexis-"
Rest assured, he had my full attention already.
"The thing is... we're actually superheroes."
Huh?