[Ellis's PoV]

FOR DRAG'S SAKE! YOU BETTER WORK, BITCH!

It's been an hour since I've been working with this technique, and I can't even seem to make it work. I didn't have that intensive tutorial that Trick had from Fei. Did you know what Haru did to me?

"Read this! Read that! Read all of that!" he said. Who reads those thick books? No one!

The only reading I know is throwing shade at someone who deserves it.

Somehow, I browsed them and picked a few ideas. Sadly, I only knew a few tricks. These cute bombs won't win my battles. I've seen how Fei, Jia, and Haru fought. They kick ass! I want that too! But I'm too tired to read. Can I just eat the books and have the knowledge go straight to my bloodstream and flow to my mind? Ugh!

Right now, what I wanted to do is to explode the tree using a blast from my palm. You know, like an energy discharge or something. But every single time a force gathers on my palm, it wears off easily.

"Need help?" a voice said. A manly voice. A hot voice.

When I looked behind, I saw a devastatingly handsome man in the name of Salvatore Mantovani, the Italian man who I wish would sweep me away like a Corleone. He's Italian, right? I've watched the first fifteen minutes of The Godfather. I'm sure he's Italian… or Greek?

"Salvatore," I said with a sweet voice. "why are you here?"

"I was jogging for an hour, and I decided to rest. Then, I heard you yell from here, so here I am," Salvatore explained. "What's bugging you?"

"I can't focus. It's hard to make an explosion. Can you teach me?" I asked him, of course, with puppy eyes. That works all the time.

"I'll try my best, though. It's not my field of expertise," he replied. Told you.

"Okay, what will I do?"

Salvatore went behind me and held my arm. "What you can do is to channel the power of your choice in your mind. In your case, you want an explosion, right? Like an energy blast. Think of how you want it to appear. Think of its coverage. Think of its color. Its shape. Its entire appearance. Now, when you already have a full image of it, centralize your power to a certain area in your body. Feel it flowing from your mind to that chosen part. Then, add a certain force by your own choice of movement."

"Movement? Like, can I dance?" I asked, though it's a weird choice.

Salvatore awkwardly chuckled. "You've watched Harry Potter movies, right? Have you observed that when they move their wands, there are certain movements to perform a spell or a charm?"

"I didn't expect you're a Potterhead, Salvatore," I commented.

"You get what I'm saying, right? So, once you added such force, release your power and make sure you have your aim clear in your mind. Let's do it using your finger," Salvatore said as he raised my finger and pointed it to a branch of a tree.

I closed my eyes and did exactly what he said. And…

A sharp blast of light hit the branch. Cool!

Salvatore let go of my hand and he faced me. "Well done!"

I jumped happily. "Okay, let's do it again." I moved in front of him and he giggled.

"I think I don't need to guide you anymore. You're a fast learner," Salvatore said.

"Oh, come on, I think it's a good position." Most especially, when I can feel his muscles against me.

"Okay. This time, make it larger," Salvatore suggested.

I cleared my throat. "What am I going to make… larger?"

Salvatore chuckled. He got what I'm trying to say. "Your blast."

I giggled like a sweet little girl. "Okay."

I imagined it being large and used my palm. It motherf/ucking worked! It looked like a mirror ball and when it touched the tree, it exploded like a firecracker. It's just a little slow, but I'm gonna work on the speed some other time.

"Good work," Salvatore and I did a high-five.

"Thank you so much, Salvatore. I will develop this skill and bring more flamboyant attacks when I fight. I want to have more tricks, so I can fight well. How about you? Aside from making your body long, what else can you do?"

"I can shrink and fit in a hole of a needle," Salvatore uttered. "It's a good defensive skill, as my opponent won't see me with his or her naked eye."

"That's cool! Can you…" Oh, my motherf/ucking f/uck. What happened? Where am I? What in the world is this place?

The grass around me is so big! The soil is softer than usual and I didn't expect that there are smaller objects on it. Like small stones or something.

Wait a minute…

When I turned around, Salvatore was behind me… and he was super massive!

Or…

Did I just shrink?

"Ellis? Where did you go?" Salvatore called.

"Salvatore! I'm here! Look down," I screamed.

Good thing my voice is so loud, he heard me. I must have the voice of a little chipmunk on him.

Salvatore then knelt and he shrunk himself. Now we're even! "Ellis! What happened? Why did you shrink?"

I sighed. "I don't know! We just did a high-five, right? Then, I shrunk! I'm so confused."

Salvatore remained silent and arrived at a conclusion that is super brilliant. "Wait a minute, Ellis. You mean, when our hands touched, you unknowingly absorbed my power?"

"Whoa," that's all I had to say. "Whoa."

"Really whoa. How about we try it?" Salvatore prepared his hand for a high-five.

I tapped his hand and all of a sudden, we returned to our original sizes.

"So, that's it?" I told Salvatore.

"Do this," Salvatore then swayed his right arm and it stretched for several meters. It's really fascinating, but I think I wanna see something else stretch that long. You know, just a hypothetical idea.

"Okay… One moment," I did sway my hand and… Shit! My arm stretched the length of where Salvatore's arm has stretched! Then, we both returned our arms to our normal length as it gets really weird.

Salvatore was totally surprised. Well, as was I. "Gosh, Ellis. Did you know you had that skill?"

"What skill?"

"I think I can call it tactile power mimicry," Salvatore explained. "When you hold someone's hand, you can absorb his or her power and perform it upon knowing it. We high-fived, right? Then, when I told you I can shrink, you shrank. When I showed you my elongated arm, you also stretched yours."

"Rad!" I exclaimed. "But until when? Does it wear off easily? Do I copy only what I can see or hear?"

Salvatore scratched his head. "I'm not sure. Maybe we can ask someone else about it. Maybe Fei or Haru?"

I groaned and rolled my eyes from north to south. "I don't like to talk about him right now. He's getting into my nerves! Ugh!"

"Ooh, did you two fight? Lovers' quarrel?" Salvatore teased.

"We're not really lovers, you know, so… we can fool around if you want," Of course, my most powerful asset, the sluttiness in me, tried to work on Salvatore, but it's not the time, though.

He just laughed. "Well, that's nice to know, but what's really bugging you about him?"

I sighed deeply. "Now that you've asked, I guess I have to be honest about it. I don't want him talking to that Dutch girl because of what she did. Back in the first cluster battle, that girl shared some information about the Thai team that didn't help Manhattan team. So, I don't trust her."

"Maybe the information was just insufficient and you're just unaware that they might not be revealing all their cards?" That point of view of Salvatore was very similar to Haru's, but, yeah. I just don't like the bitch.

"Whatever. I still don't like her," I scoffed.

Salvatore chuckled. "You don't like her because she gave insufficient information or you don't like her because she's talking to Haru again?"

"Once an ex, stays an ex!" I shouted.

Salvatore guffawed! "Oh, my. You're raging with jealousy, Ellis."

"Jealous, my ass," I said. "Exes shouldn't be friends. That's too complicated. You've had relationships in the past, I guess? And I'm sure you're not friends with your exes, yeah?"

"You're absolutely… wrong. We don't block each other on social media. We get together sometimes," Salvatore said.

I scoffed again. "Really? You already broke up with them. Why would you wanna be friends with them? That's awkward AF."

"No, no," Salvatore disagreed. "We've had closures. We had mutual decisions. It's a win-win for both parties. It's not that complicated. Actually, sometimes we jived better as friends than lovers. We discovered a lot of great things when we're not in the relationship anymore."

I growled in disagreement. "Salvatore, I really like you, because you're super hot, but you're kind of ruining this right now. I really don't understand. You've hurt each other bad enough, yeah? Then, when you break up, you want everything to be a-okay? That's some nasty bull."

Salvatore shook his head. "In some cases, it takes a long time. Some take just a day. But in time, it wouldn't hurt if friendship takes the place of the relationship. You'll realize it someday. Don't worry. You're a fast learner."

I retched. That's the gag of all former relationships. Ex. Lovers. Can't. Be. Friends. N-E-V-E-R!