Cole finally worked up his nerve enough to approach Vera and walked up to her while she was with her friends. Her friends were twins. One was Kara and the other was Sara.

“Hi my name is Cole Price.” Cole awkwardly held out his hand.

“We know who you are you ditz. Everyone in the school knows you as the guy who lost to a powerless kid.” Kara spoke.

“Yea like that’s super lame to be the only person to lose to a kid without any powers at all.” Sara mocked.

“R-right. Yea that’s me.” Cole quickly dropped his hand.

“Oh don’t take them too seriously, they like to be morons sometimes.” Vera winced a little and her hand moved up to her chest for a split second. “I’m Vera Graham!” She held out her hand to which Cole grabbed and shook lightly. “I hope you’re being treated well with your new reputation of being worse than a powerless kid.” She said with a graceful tone.

“Y-yea. I better get going now. I just wanted to say hi.”

“Oh really? That’s all huh? Good cause I was afraid that you might like me.”

Cole’s confidence instantly evaporated and he could feel his whole body suddenly become controlled by an outside force. Cole felt his body turned around and walking away. He didn’t say anything and didn’t even know what to say to that. He just let this outside force pull him away. Which he was ok with. He wanted to get away from there anyway. Finally he rounded a corner and the control had suddenly stopped. But he decided to keep walking. He wasn’t going to approach Vera ever again.

“Cole wait!” Vera shouted to him quietly. Cole turned a little. He didn’t want to face her now. However, she suddenly appeared in his view. “I’m really really sorry about that. I really need your help.”

“Why should I help you now after you said all of that?” Cole snapped at her harshly.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry for all of that.... and I can’t think of a reason for you to help me. But can I at least tell you what I need help with?”

“Fine.”

“I want to apologize to Becca. She’s a really great person and I kind of was a jerk to her when we first met. I also want to be in that friend group. Those other two girls are...” She clutched her chest in pain and knelt down.

“Vera!” Cole knelt down beside her and placed a hand on her back. “Are you ok? What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. I’m ok. I’m ok.” It seemed like she said it more to reassure herself. “Anyway... can you help me?”

“Yea. I’ll let Becca know you want to make amends. But first I want to know what you think of Elias.”

“Oh... Elias, poor kid. He seems like such a sweet guy but everyone else treats him like garbage because he’s missing his ability. I was hoping that I could be in his friend group. You all seem really nice and you all trust each other.”

“Oh... wait how can I know that you don’t want in so you can just insult them and mind control them!”

Vera looked as if she has just been shot in the stomach. Tears began to form in her eyes as well. “I-I hate my ability. It’s an ability that’s seen as evil and who am I to defend it. To use it I have to break a persons will and destroy their self confidence. Then control them to serve my selfish needs. I wish I could be like Elias. I couldn’t bring myself to tear such a close friendship apart... especially when my two friends are-“ Once again Vera clutched her chest and began to shake and let out a cry of pain.

Cole quickly embraced her. Something wasn’t right about her and he could feel it. “I’ll help you.”

“Really?!”

“Yes.”

The two of them stood up and made their way to Elias’ and Becca’s room. Cole knocked on the door and Elias answered.

Elias gave a friendly smile to Cole but quickly confusion had spread across his face. “Hey Cole! Who’s this?”

“This is Vera Graham. She wanted to talk to Becca.”

“Uhhh... k. I haven’t seen Becca at all today. She sent me a message saying that she was going to be in town for a majority of the day. I’m not sure what she’s doing and she left without me so I’m pretty much just stuck here. But I can relay whatever is needed to her.”

“No that’s fine. I think it needs to be in person.” Vera said a little disappointed.

“Ok. Well if I see her I’ll let her know you’re looking for her. Your name is...”

“Vera. Vera Graham.”

“Alright got it. Vera Graham. Yea. Ok. I’ll let her know that you came by asking for her.”

“Ok. Thank you Elias!”

“Eh no problem.” Elias said as he closed the door.

“Well... I guess we could go look for her.” Cole suggested.

“No no. It’s fine really. We can try again tomorrow. Meet me in the same hallway after school?”

“Uh yea. Sure. I’ll be there.”

“Ok. Well uh. Goodbye for now.”

“Yea. Goodbye Vera.”

With that Vera has slipped back around the corner leaving Cole standing in the hallway alone.

Elias’ door slowly creeped open. “Hey man I think she likes you.” He said teasing Cole.

Cole rolled his eyes and pushed the door closed on Elias earning him a yelp.

Cole then went on back to his room and laid on his bed. While his body was tired his mind was running. “Was Vera sick? Does she have some sort of medical condition? Why does she hang out with those girls? They’re really mean and she’s not. She acts mean around them and it’s clear that it’s not who she is. So why does she deal with them?” His thoughts soon drew him to sleep and the next morning he woke up went through the day as normal until school was over and he could meet up with Vera again.

“Hi Cole!” Vera greeted with a smile.

“Hey.” Cole greeted back.

“How was your day?”

“A pretty normal school day. Nothing new really. What about you?”

“Yea. Nothing super new. My friends had to go home for the night but they’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Ah so you need someone to hang out with?”

“Pretty much. I was also thinking that I could go apologize to Becca too.”

“Oh yea! You wanna see if we can do that now?”

“Sure! It would be better to catch her before she leaves to do something again.”

The two of them began to walk towards the cafeteria to see if Becca would be in there since most students would visit the cafeteria after school for a snack. After a short walked they arrived and almost immediately spotted Becca sitting at a table with Aaron and Georgia. Cole and Vera approached the table and as they grew closer Becca noticed them. Cole watched Becca’s face pale a little as she shot daggers with her eyes at Vera.

“Oh hey Cole! Who’s this?” Georgia greeted being friendly.

“This is Vera. Vera Graham.”

“Oh well it’s nice to meet you! I’m Georgia and this is Aaron!” She indicated to the tall purple haired man sitting next to her.

“Sup!” He greeted.

“Hi... um... Becca can we talk?” Vera said looking at the ground.

Becca hesitated for a moment but her mouth began to form the word “no” however before any breath had left her mouth she noticed Aaron giving her a nod with a serious look. “...Sure... I’ll talk to you for a little.” Becca stood up and moved out of the bench and followed Vera to the hallway.

Vera turned to face Becca with a guilt stricken look on her face. “I know you hate me and that I’m not someone you want to talk to. But I still wanted you to know that I’m so sorry for what I said to you during our battle. I didn’t mean any of it and I don’t have any excuse for saying those things. I hope you can forgive me and if it’s not too much that we could be friends.”

Becca paused for a moment. Studying Vera and the words she had just spoke. Vera’s eyes looked hopeful and she held a small gentle smile while her breathing was slow and natural. However as time passed her eyes became afraid and her smile was replaced with a small quiver. Her breathing quickly became quick and shallow. Becca realized that she was now causing her fear and the same lack of confidence that Vera gave her in their battle.

“Yes of course. It’s part of your ability so I can forgive you.” Becca pulled Vera in for a hug. “Feel free join us anytime.”

Vera was taken back by the quick forgiveness. She hugged back and suddenly began to sob into Becca. “Th-thank you so much!”

Becca was surprised by the sudden expression of emotion. “Ye-Yea it’s not problem. Is everything ok?”

Vera started to sob even harder. Between sobs she would speak. “Yes... I’m... ok.”

“Ok.” Becca rubbed her hand up and down the back of the other girl trying to provide comfort. Soon the girls returned to the table after Vera had calmed down a little. Vera slid in next to Cole and Becca sat next to Georgia. Pretty soon Elias had came over and slid in next to Vera.

“Hey Elias how was practice?”

“I think it was going alright. I’ve gotten used to the speed of the tennis balls. I just need something faster to get better.”

“So... since you’re destroying school property by slicing up tennis balls... do you have to pay the school back?” Aaron asked.

“Actually no! When I first started I asked the weights and the ability instructors if there was anything fast that I could use to train. They said that there’s a tennis ball machine that was made specifically for training and that the balls are supposed to be destroyed because there’s no real sports at this school.” Elias answered.

“Oh wow!”

The six of them were friends and they trusted each other and relied on each other.

Until Cole was walking through the hallway overhearing a conversation a couple days later.

Cole slowed his steps and became quiet. He heard familiar voices that sent shivers down his spine. One of them was Vera.

“So you infiltrated the weaklings friend circle?” Kara spoke.

“Yes. They all trust me completely.” Vera spoke.

“Good. Now all you need to do is break them apart and lower their confidence. The take control of them. Permanently.” Sara spoke.

“They don’t suspect a single thing and they won’t see it coming.” Vera said scheming against her new “friends.”

Cole clenched his fists in anger. He trusted Vera and even allowed himself to develop true feelings for her. But now that trust was destroyed and he felt hatred towards her because of this plot against his friends. Her plan would not succeed. He will warn the others.