"Savannah, thank god you're here! I tried to find you on the soccer field, but then I had to run back to see Griffin, to see if he knew where you were, and he told me to find Liesa. Liesa said that you had ran off after swimming-practice to check out a few books in the library, so I went there. And Mrs Selznick said you'd gone to see the English teacher for the Eleventh and he said you told him that you were going down to the Auditorium and they said you were down here, in Weir Commons. I've run around campus looking for you, and now we don't have much time to talk! It's important. Time to talk, now, aysap." Lillian cried as she ran into our dorm, slamming the door by kicking it closed. Lillian Hastings is my best friend, my second roommate and my Gifted One-in-arms. See, Lillian can do this really cool thing, she can move things with her mind. What's the word? She's telekinetic, or at least I think she is. She's never too keen on talking about her Gift. Lily and I have known each other since the eighth grade, when we got put into the same dormitory-set together, along with another Gifted One named Reagan Johannson.

Lily threw her messenger bag across the room, not caring when it hit the wall and slid down to her bed, racing towards me. But, I didn't hear her, because I was doing me homework with my iPod earbuds in. I had "The Little Things" by Danny Elfman playing full-blast in my ears. I scribbled the answer to "How did Poseidon (god of the sea) win his consort, Amphrotite?" and went to write the next answer ("What made Perseus go to kill Medusa? Who helped him with this task?") when suddenly all I heard was, "But I never knew about the li-SAVANNAH!" in my ears. "WHAAAH!! LILY, WHAT THE HELL?!" I snapped, grabbing my chest, which was heaving in shock.

Lily looked sheepish, "Sorry, I wanted to ask you something!" she said with a shrug, getting off my bed. She blushed and looked down, twirling her thumbs and biting her lip. I stared at her curiously, waiting for her to say what she wanted to say so badly. "Eeooumooingubryoutsifwee?" she mumbled, scratching the back of her neck uncomfortably. I laughed and pulled out my second bud, pushing the sheets of notebook paper off my lap and onto the wrinkled duvet cover. I cocked my head to the side and playfully let my eyebrows come together in confusion. "What was that Lil?" I asked, flipping the duvet off of me so that I could get out of bed. I started to make my bed again, pulling the corners up to the pillows so that it looked nice and neat. Lily coughed awkwardly and started to slowly speak, putting emphasis on every word. "Will. You. Come. To. The. Singing. Club. Try-outs. With. Me?" she said more slowly, not looking up at me. I automatically held up my hands, "Whoa! No, only those artsy-fartsy people go to those tryouts and stuff! Sooo not my style! I hang with the Soccer-players and the swimmers, you know this!!!" I said impatiently. Lillian stomped her foot, glaring at me. "Ray already is in the Singing Club-"

"It's just a Glee Club with a different name." I argued.

"So? You can sing, you can sing really well! And why is a Glee club so messed up for you?! Your soccer buddies gonna pick on you?!" she retorted angrily.

"Well, maybe they would! I'm not taking chances."

"Fine, Adrian told me he would be there to cheer me on, since he's already in the club! He's nice, unlike you." she huffed, stomping over to her bed and roughly grabbing her bag off the bed. I sat here in shock. Adrian was helping Lily get into the Singing-Club? He was already in the Singing-Club? I thought he said he was in the Actor's club, I mean, I went around the whole school, checking out books on acting and talking to the English teacher who ran the club about auditions, only to find out that the auditions were over for the day and that I had to get up at eight AM and find them then. My thoughts were jarred by Lily slamming the door, making me jump. I sat there, biting my lip... I could sing... and I liked music, a lot. I jumped up, grabbing my hoodie and Converses, running out the door in my socks. "Wait! Lillian! Waaait!" I cried, flying down the carpeted hallway towards my friend. "Lilllllyyy!!!!" I screamed, turning the corner and smashing into her.

"OW!" we both cried, flinging backwards and falling onto the carpet. Lily groaned and rolled over, cursing like a sailor in her head. "Owww, Savvy, what the heck?" she moaned, grabbing her nose. I rolled onto my back and grabbed the back of my head, which had hit the wall. A head-splitting pain filled my head, making my vision blur for a moment. "Lil... you okay?" I groaned, sitting up and going to get up. She rubbed the red bridge of her nose and nodded yes, looking all around at the papers that had flung out of her bag. "Oh, bugger. I'm so sorry!" I insisted, going to pick up all of the papers. "I can get it," Lily said, touching my shoulder. With a blink and a wave of her open palm, the papers started to move into a neat pile, un-wrinkling and sitting neatly in front of her. Without a second thought, she leaned down and picked the pile up, stuffing it in her bag with a small smile. "Shall we go?"


The Waldorf Academy Auditorium is a huge room, with a ginormous stage that has the best of the best lighting, brand-new curtains and props, and amazing actors to preform on it. Lily and I entered the noise-filled room, looking around for a seat in the chaos. There are exactly five hundred and twenty velvet covered seats in the auditorium, which sprawl out into three different sections, making two aisles down the center and two by the walls, which teachers use to make sure we're paying attention to the boring assemblies. On the stage, my other roommate, Reagan Johannson, was talking about the process. "'Kay? Then, after you give us your song, we will evaluate your posture and your voice. After you're done, you'll get a slip, if it's blue, you may leave, if it's green, you've been called back up. We're looking for six more people, so at least twelve of you will be called back and six of those will get in. Okay?" Reagan smiled at all of the girls and the few boys in the crowd. Lily pushed me into a seat as Ray looked down at the clipboard in her hands. "So... First on our list is... Aimee Castor." she said, stepping off the stage and letting Aimee walk passed her.

"I-I'm singing 'M-My Heart Will G-G-Go On' by Celine Deon," she stuttered, looking down at the paper in her hands. Aimee was a chubby girl with a rather nervous problem: she couldn't look up at the judges. She was staring down the whole time. I turned my head, looking around me at the auditorium. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving around and turned, blushing when I realized what the moving thing was. It was Adrian, two rows ahead. Waving like mad. At me. I flushed, smiling and waving slightly at him. "Hey," I mouthed, smiling. Then it was on again, his voice in my head talking to me. It was clear and sweet. <i> Hey, stranger, it said as Adrian smiled and winked.

I wanted to scream and giggle at the same time, so I kept my cool and I replied a simple reply. I wish you'd stop doing that, the mind thing. How do you do it? I asked, cocking my head to the side and pulling my knees up to my chin.

Well, Adrian replied, turning in his seat so that he could keep his gaze on my face as we talked. I think about what I want you to hear, and you hear it. Like, Reagan tells me she can do Electrokenesis and kinetic absorption, I can do Telepathy. My mom can do Technopathy, that's using your mind to control technology. My sister, Regina, can do power mimicry or absorption, which means she can take a power from someone. She's taken mine and my mom's so much that she's absorbed it, she's adapted to the power. And my dad can do a sort of biological manipulation and accelerated healing. My whole family is Gifted, I just got to be telepathic. Good enough answer? he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I just stared at him for a moment, then replied, Your family is so special. I'm impressed, but mind-reading is not my only power, so don't think you're so big and bad, Adrian. I can preform Empathy, which goes well along mind-reading and memory manipulation. I'm your typical, everyday Emma Frost! I snorted. I didn't know why I told him this stuff, and why I was acting so calm about finding another Gifted One. And the thing that got me the most was that I'd just told him about my Empathy... no one knows that I'm Empathetic, not even Lillian. The Emma Frost joke was something that Lily had made up when she started reading the Uncanny X-men comics, something that she did a lot. Lily loves reading comicbooks because it makes her feel better when she read about the comics, which people thought were fake, but they didn't know that people like Stan Lee have superpows in real-life. We're the Gifted Ones, we just stay hidden.

You're Empathetic? You read people's emotions? Wow, that's a pretty cool power... so not only are you hearing the thoughts in a person's head, but you're also feeling their emotions. It's like you've become a part of the person! And I thought Reggie and her power augmentation, negation and mimicries were cool... So, what am I thinking and feeling? I'll put my wall down for you.

You're felling confused, but calm... wait, did you say your wall... Ooooh! Your wall! So that's why I can't read you mind?! You have a mental-bock up that doesn't let anyone with extrasensory perception into your mind. I thought my ESP was getting weak, you just won't let me in...

Exactly. I could see what you were doing, you were making twitches with your finger... wincing... I knew something was different about you. So, I put up my block. When Reggie and I came to Waldorf, Headmistress Winters told us about the other Gifted Ones at Waldorf... two out of seventeen... Do you know any Gifted students? I haven't met any of them. I felt bad for Adrian, he looked really sad about this part, like he'd been having trouble finding the proper friends... instead he had Emilie Duvall.

I know three of them. Me, Lily Hastings and Reagan and Griffin Johannson. We've been friends since the Eighth. I said simply, putting my feet up on the back of the chair in front of me so that my teal and gray Converses were high in the air. And adding another Gifted to our group wouldn't be a problem for us. In fact, I think that everyone would really- "Savannah, what are you doing?" Lily's voice rang out in my ears, disrupting my connection to Adrian. I turned to face her with wide eyes and asked what she was talking about. She gave me the most freaked out look ever and then explained her question, "Well, eight people have gone up and you've been staring at Adrian Noir for the whole thing. And he's been staring back at you. You both look really weird, what the heck are you two doing?" Lily asked, looking
from Adrian, who was still looking at me and trying to get in my mind, to me. I looked down and sighed, trying to think of a reply. "Erm, staring contest... we were just-"

"Could Lillian Hastings make her way to the stage?" Reagan called, looking around the room, trying to find Lily. I smiled at her, giving her more of a smirk than a smile. She rolled her eyes and headed towards the stage, gulping as she slowly walked towards Ray on the stage. I knew she was nervous, I could feel it pulsing off of her, her body was all tangled in a mess of fear and nervousness. Moment of truth, she thought, leaning towards the microphone.