Elliot sprang up in his bed. The almond colored skin of his shirtless torso was drenched in sweat. Breathing heavily he looked around the dark dorm room, happy to be awake and out of the nightmare. The paused tv painted the room a glowing blue.
"You have the dream again?" His roomate Sheree asked with impatience and boredom in her voice.
"Yeah,It felt so real too," he said, trying to catch his breath.
"You've been having that same dream several times a week, either figure out what's wrong or get over it," She said coldly.
She was sitting on her bed with her right arm outstrecthed, practicing her powers, levitating a red ball of yarn as high off the floor as she could lift it. Her toned, right arm shuddered as she strained to hold the ball afloat. When it was too much for her she dropped it.
"That's easy for you to say, you're a robot, you probably don't even dream," Elliot shot back
"Of course not. How could anyone dream, with you waking up screaming every night?" she asked him.
"Look, I'm sorry. I know living in this room with me hasn't been easy," Elliot said as he stared down at the faded, blue blanket that still covered his lower body.
He lay back down and closed his eyes. Maybe he could fall back asleep and dream of something better. Something soft and round bounced off his face.
He opened his eyes and found the ball of yarn lying next to his head. He looked over at Sheree. She had her arm outstretched in his direction. She was smiling, but sweating and breathing heavily.
"That's for calling me a robot," she said, as if she had hurt him.
"Don't you ever get upset with how weak we are? I'm only like 10 feet away from you and it took all your power just to toss this little ball at me," Elliot asked before throwing the ball back at her.
She stopped it just before it made contact with her face, but quickly ran out of energy and dropped it onto her lap.
"It does bother me that we're the only people at this school still in the G rank, but we're different and I get that. That's why instead of sulking, I practice, you should try it sometime," she said and got out of her bed. Her long black braid looked like a snake in the dimly lit room, moving across the bed as she walked away from it.
Elliot stared at her majestic form as she began stretching in the front of the room. Standing so that she faced away from him, she raised her arms up as high as she could and then bent over to touch her toes. The long, pink t-shirt she wore fell up to her armpits and revealed her bare torso and the tiny black shorts that she only wore to bed. The golden brown skin of her legs and thighs made Elliot's mouth water. A part of him wanted to catch a glimpse of her breasts, but her legs were blocking his view.
"You better not be staring at me right now," Sheree said in her usual, flat tone.
Shocked at being caught, Elliot spun around and buried his face in his large, white pillow.
"How is that part of your practicing?" He asked,the pillow distorting his voice.
"Everyone knows that you need to stretch before any physical activity so you don't cramp up," she said with a slight grunt as she continued moving.
I wonder whose idea it was to make the dorms coed?" Elliot thought out loud as he resisted his urge to turn around.
"That's because it takes less space to house us by rank instead of gender or even class," Sheree said matter-of-factly and stood straight up.
Elliot touched the silver pendant with the bear paw emblazoned on it that hung around his neck when she said class. That was another sore subject for him. He was classified as a Herculean, or person with super strength by the school. He didn't have super strength though. His power was more like super impact. He couldn't lift a large rock, but if he punched it, it might crumble. He had only actually used it properly once and that was a complete accident.
"Since we're both up, you wanna go to the woods and train without captain showoff and professor cranky for a bit?" Sheree asked.
Elliot snickered at the nicknames she had given their teammates. Sheree didn't joke often, but she could be funny when she wanted to. Captain Showoff was their teammate Albert. He was the only person ever to be discovered to have a second power. Professor Cranky or Klein was their team leader. She was a strict woman whose only concern was keeping the team alive long enough to finish their education. Elliot looked over at the digital clock on the wooden nightstand next to his bed. It was six fifteen in the morning. He knew there was no way he was going back to sleep. Plus the thought of training without the other two made him feel slightly excited.
"I'll go if you promise not to try and take on anything out of our league," Elliot said and sat up.
"How will we ever get stronger if we're scared to challenge ourselves?" Sheree asked and began pulling his blanket telepathically.
Elliot stared at Sheree amused as the blanket slowly inched backward. He wanted to wait and see how long it would take her to pull the blanket completely off him, but breakfast was in 2 hours and he wanted to get to the woods before that. He jumped out of bed and walked over to his closet.
Sheree walked back to her side of the room and switched on the lamp that sat on her nightstand. Elliot couldn't help looking over at her. She was facing away from him again, but she was completely naked this time. The end of her long black braid rested just above her firm, bare butt.
"I can feel your eyes on me," Sheree said without turning to face him.
Elliot quickly turned his attention back to his closet. The only clothing he owned was school issued. All of it was purple with silver trim to represent his placement into the Herculean house. Except the footwear, a black pair of training boots, a black pair of formal shoes, and a black pair of sneakers. He hated the color scheme, but the fifteen outfits, 5 school uniforms, 5 training uniforms, and 5 leisure outfits, were all he owned. He put on his training gear, pants first, to hide his growing erection. After he adjusted his pants, he threw on his shirt and boots. When the two of them finished getting dressed they headed out into the woods, as the sun rose in the morning sky.
"Okay, woods we're coming in there to kick the crap out of anything that moves," Elliot yelled when they got to the entrance of the woods.
"Yeah, I'm sure that's what's gonna happen" Sheree said and walked cautiously into the woods clutching at her silver pendant with the owl's face on it.