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Multimedia was getting harder for most of the students, but not Kevin. They had to use flash for the first time. Most didn’t know what to do; they kept asking Ms. Jarvinen for help. Kevin was now was exposed so he had to conceal his gift when he used it. Kevin could make the computer do anything he wanted. He made his own pirate signal, using his electricity with commands encoded in it, to make the computer do things that would be hard even for an advance computer technician. They had to make a ball bounce along a “W” shaped path. Kevin couldn’t make the ball too advance, so he just made it bounce like everyone else's. To add his own little touch, Kevin made the ball pop at the end of the bounce. Ms. Jarvinen walked by as Kevin made the ball pop. Everyone knew he was a freak, but Ms, Jarvinen was the only teacher in the school comfortable with his power. She didn’t know if Kevin really made the ball pop, or if he used his own signal to create it.

“Wow. That’s really good. Can you show me how you did it?” Ms. Jarvinen asked.

Kevin jumped at the sound of the chocolate lab’s voice. He knew that he could not recreate the popping without using his power. He flattened his ears to his head and said, “Sorry”, deleting the popping segment.

Giving a small smile, Ms. Jarvinen walked away. Knowing that he couldn’t make the ball pop, he just saved it and left the bouncing ball. He wondered what Jessica had to go through now that everyone knew her secret too.

Thinking of Jessica reminded him of Roy. Three days after Kevin and Jessica returned, the Government had found Roy and sterilized him. He had been gone for five days, luckily the Government let Roy’s parents stay home with him. If Roy wasn’t back by Thursday, Kevin planed on visiting him. The rest of the day went by normally. Everyone still tried to keep as much space as possible between them and Kevin; no one would even look at him. In his English class even his teacher hurried by his desk to get away after placing his paper on the desk. His face looked like he could care less, but Kevin knew how freak out he was. All the middle school kids that shared the bus with the high school kids always went quiet as Kevin got on. The bus driver liked having this wolf on her bus, no one talked. it was much less distracting.The middle school kids used to tease Kevin when they learned he was a freak until one day an eighth grader went to far.

Two days earlier Kevin got on the bus and went to his usual seat. An eighth grader decided to join his friends in insulting the wolf. After all his other friends had gotten their remarks in, the kid wanted to go farther than anyone else had. “Hey freak.” The kid called to Kevin, who didn’t even acknowledge him. “Nice tattoo,” he said. Then Kevin stopped. Everyone went quiet and the kid who insulted him was still smirking. Even his friends started to get nervous. Kevin had taken all kinds of insults but he would not stand insults about the mark he had. Without so much as a warning, Kevin whipped around and shot a small bolt of electricity at the eighth grader. The kid ducked and the bolt hit the window with a loud ZAP. Without another word he walked to his seat and sat down.

Ever since then, no one dared to make him mad. Kevin liked this, but sometimes it was quite annoying. There was one girl on his bus that really didn’t care about his gift. He still talked to him. She even joked about his gift, but Kevin didn’t care. He knew she didn’t mean anything she said.

As Kevin got home, he found a note on the counter. It was from his mom. His mom and Dad went out so he had to fend for him and his sister when she got home. Kevin didn’t have any homework, which meant he could relax for the moment. He sat down and turned on the T.V. and started channel surfing. About an hour later, he heard the door open and in came his sister. She was a ten year old dragon. She had bluish green scales covering all of her body, and a full head of dark, brown hair.

“Hey Kelly.” Kevin said.

“Hey” she called back. After throwing her backpack into her room, she ran down stairs to play on the family computer. Kevin had his own computer because he was tiered of sharing with the rest of the family. He needed it most of the time, more than everyone else at least. Most everything was normal outside of school. No one who knew him personally had changed their attitude towards him. He just hoped it was the same for Jessica. The next day at school, Roy was back. He didn’t look like he had been affected much by the sterilization. Both Kevin and Jessica stared at him puzzled as to why he was so radiant.

“I really didn’t get the same treatment you guys got; mine was a bit more civilized. I also didn’t struggle which made it a bit better. I just used the treatment to skip school.” he explained when Jessica asked him about it. Kevin just rolled his eyes at the otter.

“Glad it was better for you than it was for me.” Jessica said.

“Oh ya that’s right, you can’t remember your treatment can you Kevin? You were too young, right?”

“Nope. I was treated when I was two.”

All three of them were still getting use to being able to talk about things like this freely in public. They were so use to being as secret as possible about their true colors. This is just one of the many things that change from being exposed.
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Jessica was in biology studying Carbohydrates. She really didn’t pay attention to it much. Usually she would just draw. Today she was drawing one of her Spore characters. Her teacher really didn’t care that she usually never pays attention, mainly because Jessica always knew what they were studying. She usually just let her draw, especially now that Jessica was a freak and also knew several other freaks as well. No teachers in any of her classes got mad at her. She liked this some of the time but usually it just annoyed her.

Her teacher ended early and let the class talk, mostly to try and get on Jessica’s good side, but Jessica didn’t know that. As she walked outside, she found what she expected. Kevin was standing with Roy, waiting for Jessica to complete the group.

“Hey guys” Jessica called.

The three walked to their next classes. “Together as freaks”, Roy once said. Everyone was still freaked out by the group. Jessica, Kevin and Roy were the first freaks in Issaquah in the past five years, let alone a group of them.

At lunch, Roy and Kevin were having the hot lunch, nachos with tater tots. Jessica had the earlier lunch so it was just Roy and Kevin. They usually had their own table, not that it was designated, just that no one wanted to sit near them. They just talked about life in general. It was near the end of the lunch time that they heard the intercom go off. On the other side was the book keeper saying, “Attention students, please excuse this interruption. We will have an surprise assembly today at sixth period”. Kevin looked at Roy, who just gave a little shrug. Fifth period went by fast and everyone was anxious for sixth period. No one, not even the teachers knew anything about the sudden assembly. Each teacher had to get their seating chart at the gym. There wasn’t really anything in the center of the Gymnasium. Only a microphone was visible. As Kevin and Jessica sat down, everyone around them started to panic, they had to get too close for their comfort. The same thing happened to Roy, who was on the other side of the gym. When the principle came to the microphone, everyone went quiet.

“Hello everyone.” The female cat at the microphone. “Sorry about no warnings. We had just learned about this today. We have a guest speaker. Please help me introduce, Agent Coland”. A white polar bear came out on the stage in a suit, holding a large file of papers. He shook the principle hand and stepped up to the microphone. “Hello everyone”, he said. “You all are probably wondering what going on. Well, we have recently found three freaks in this area”. as soon as he said this, everyone started to look for Kevin, Roy and Jessica. Noticing this, Agent Coland gave a small chuckle. “I see most of you know them. Yes, they are Kevin Torn, Jessica Cune, and Roy Vaddafi. We are not here about them though. We have reports of a group of freaks somewhere in the National Forest. We have new reports that they have members in this area. We are going around to all the schools the have freaks to try and find the members. Anyone who has any ideas at where the members might be, they can put a note in this box which will be in the principles office. Not everyone has to put something in, but I do expect something from the three freaks I mentioned earlier”.

Kevin gave a low growl but apparently most everyone heard it. Everyone looked in the direction of the wolf. Though Kevin didn’t know it, Jessica also gave a little foxy growl along with Kevin’s. Even Roy, who would never stop smiling to anything, gave an angered look to the Agent. The Agent gave a slight smirk to the wolf’s anger.

“Will this be a problem to you?” the Agent asked, tauntingly.

“Yes it will be”, Jessica said with obvious hatred in her voice. Kevin was surprised at the anger and hatred that Jessica’s voice instilled, he had never seen her like this. usually she was so passive. This new side of Jessica almost scared Kevin.

“And why will it be a problem?” the Agent asked, finding the small vixen’s anger amusing.

“Because the only reason you want us to write something is because you automatically suspect us of being part of the FRA.” she said.

“I never said this was the FRA.” the Agent said, his amusement turning into suspicion.

“Oh come on! Is it really that hard to figure out. What is the only group of freaks in the world that challenges you?”

“Fine. But you must understand why we have to be cautious when dealing with this thing. We can’t afford to let anyone slip.” the Agent said, getting irritated.

“Ya. You can’t let freaks slip. Have you ever once thought that maybe there are some normal people who joined them?” Jessica yelled, getting just as irritated.

“Yes we have, but it is more likely that a freak would join them. Besides, what normal person in their right mind would want to join them?”

Then Jessica went silent. She did not move, speak or even breathe for a few seconds. Without a second thought, she sprouted her wings and lunged at the Agent, the last comment made her snap, she now wanted only to hurt the Agent in anyway possible. Kevin realized what she was going, a quarter of a second after she moved. Kevin had to stop her or else they would go to jail. It is illegal to attack an Agent, and even worse for a freak to do so. Before Jessica could cover a quarter of the distance to the Agent, Kevin jumped after Jessica and grabbed her leg, pulling her down. She lost her balance and fell to the ground, but Kevin landed on his feet and caught her before she hit the gym’s floor. She regained some self composure and simply stared at the Agent while Kevin set her down. Neither Kevin, Jessica nor the Agent were even aware of the hundreds of other students watching this spectacle.

“Jessica, please control yourself”, Kevin said to the vixen he was holding back. “I want to hurt him as much as you do, but if we do, we will go to jail for the rest of our lives along with our families”. Jessica looked at the wolf with an almost pleading look. She held it for a few seconds and relaxed a little, but still kept her stare on the Agent. “Are you ok?” Kevin asked.

“Ya, I’m fine”. she replied.

Aside to her, he said, “Let’s go”. He spotted Roy in the stands. “Come on Roy. Let’s go.” Kevin called. Without missing a heart-beat, Roy had his bag slumped up on his shoulder and was walking down the bleachers.

“Where do you think your going?” the Agent asked.

“Home.” Roy said, as he jumped the last few steps of the bleachers.

“What makes you think that you can just leave school?” the Principle asked walking towards the group. “You may be freaks. You may have powers that can really hurt someone, but you still can’t just skip school”.

“Well the way I see it is that this assembly is mainly over”, Kevin snapped. “If we were to stay, Agent Jerk over there would just tell everyone how horrible this group is. That or he would just harass us. Besides we have only about twenty minuets left”.

Kevin slammed the gym doors open, making everyone, even the Agent, jump in their seats. All three of them were tired of the snide remarks, the automatic assumptions and most of all, the fear that they seem to instill in everyone.

The group got to Kevin’s car and stopped. Roy didn’t know what was going on, but both Kevin and Jessica had the same idea. “Hey Roy, remember the group the Agent was talking about?” Kevin asked.

“Ya. Why?”

“Well, you see, we’re kinda part of it.” Jessica explained, sheepishly.

“And we wanted you to join us. We could use your gift. What do you say?” Kevin asked.

Roy just gave his normal goofy smile and simply said, “Sure”.
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The next day, with Jessica in the car, Kevin headed over to Roy’s house to pick him up. They didn’t have school on Friday so they could take that day off to go to the National Forest. Kevin partially knew the way but they could only go so far with the car. At one point, the road stopped and would not let them go any farther. Jessica had to fly both Roy and Kevin to the base. Carrying two people took its toll on the vixen. She had to rest six more times than when she was just carrying Kevin, but they finally got to the familiar part of the forest. They could walk from there, taking about an hour to walk, but they had to make sure that they were not being followed. Kevin sent out a low level electric signal to see if any surveillance equipment was in the area. Finding none, the group head in the direction of the base. When they finally got there, the base doors opened up letting the group in. They all passed by the metal detector, only Kevin set the signal of with his keys. As the got out of the opening chamber, they came to the interior of the base. Roy marveled at the sheer size of the base, while Kevin and Jessica tried to find the councils office. Once they finally found it, Kevin knocked on the door. “Come in” a male voice called. Kevin opened the door and was greeted by the site of a old grey mouse.

“Ah, Kevin, Jessica, it’s nice to see you again”, the grey mouse said. This grey mouse, Colin, was the father of Daniel, and the main leader of this operation.

“Hey Colin. We actually came here for business. You see, the Government somehow knew that someone from our area joined you. We think that they may be on to us. To help keep a better watch, we wanted to have our friend Roy join. He can turn invisible”, Jessica explained.

“Oh! That could be very useful. Of course he can join, but he will have to go through the hearing”.

“Ok. Call us when he is done with the hearing and initiation”, Kevin said.

As Kevin and Jessica walked out of the office, Daniel rushed over to the two panting. “Hey… hey guys…” he said in between pants. After catching his breath, he continued, “I heard you guys were here and I thought you would like to meet someone”.

“Really? Who?”, Jessica asked.

“You’ll see”, he replied. Both Kevin and Jessica followed Daniel to a door that had the words “Control Room” above it. Daniel opened the door and called, “They’re here”. Without any warning a large red panda came running up and threw both Kevin and Jessica into a bear hug. “Panda!” Jessica cried. The red panda was one of their friends named Olivia, she had gone to their school last year but neither of them saw her at the high school. She always wanted to be called Panda for some odd reason. All three of them were excited at seeing each other.

“Where have you been Panda?” Jessica asked.

“Right here actually. Right before school started, me and my family took a camping trip near Ocean Shores. My dad really pissed me off and I took my car and drove away. I don’t know how but I ended up in the Forest. I was taken here when I got too closed and they asked me if I ever wanted to be a freak. And I said ‘Hell ya! That would so totally rock!’. So they did something and now I’m a freak.”

“What can you do?” Kevin asked

“I can… um, grow”, she said.

“What do you mean by ‘grow’?” Jessica asked.

“I can make myself bigger, about six times to be exact”,

“How did you find out what you can do?”

“They have a device that they use to find out what a freak’s power is, if they don’t know, or they won’t show”.

“So what do you do here?” Jessica asked, looking around the room. It was filled with nothing but buttons and levers.

“I’m the technician. I make sure everything is working properly. Oh, and I also make the announcements”.

“Oh! No wonder that voice sounded familiar”, Kevin thought.

The three talked for what seemed about an hour. They just talked about how life was going so far. Panda always knew that Jessica was a freak; she was the first person to find out, besides Jessica’s parents. When Jessica showed Panda her mark, Panda’s eyes started to tear up. She was very emotional about these kinds of things. After a few subject changes, Panda was back to her happy self. In mid-sentence, Panda was interrupted by a knocking on the door. Daniel popped his head in. “Hey guys. Roy did it. He joined”, he said.

Knowing Roy’s love of overkill, he wanted to make sure the other guy didn’t get bloodied up to bad. “How’s the other guy? Hope Roy didn’t hurt him too bad”, Kevin said.

“Actually, the other guy won. But we don’t do this to see if you can win or not, we see if the new recruit knows how to use their gift. Roy does but he could use some training”.

“Ok. We’ll get right on that. Is there anything else you need with him, or can we see him?”

“No. We’re done. You can see him”.

As Jessica and Kevin said goodbye to Panda, Roy turned the corner and greeted the two.

“Welcome to the group”, Kevin said. Roy, being his goofy self, had to make fun of it somehow. He extended his arms towards Kevin and chanted in a zombie like voice, “One of you. One of you”. Roy seemed to be taking this new responsibility quite well. He seemed really happy to be with his friends. Now the circle was complete.
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The next couple of day went by normally. Kevin, Jessica and Roy were instilling fear into the hearts of every student, everyone flinched when they were not expecting their voices and everyone was expecting to die. What no one was expecting was another assembly. The assembly was just like the last one, so everyone knew what was going to happen. The same polar bear from earlier came out. He seemed much more relaxed that the last time.

“Hello everyone. I came here today to explain what’s going on. We have found out much more information about the FRA. We have many reports that the three freaks at this school are somehow connected to the them,” This just started it all over again. Kevin, Roy and Jessica gave growls towards the Agent.

“Once again, you take false information and state it true”, Kevin said angrily. “Do you really think anyone here will talk truthfully. Everyone is dead scared of us. They will do anything to get rid of us.”

“Ya, you tell him Kevin.” one of Kevin’s friends from the crowd. As the other fur shouted, the Agent looked in that direction. Before the Agent turned back, Roy went invisible. As the Agent turned, Kevin knew Roy was working his way down to the floor. “Where did that otter go?” the Agent demanded, irritation showing in his voice. Before the Agent could ask again, he suddenly feel to the floor and his nose started to bleed. Roy quickly got back to his original spot and reappeared. The Agent looked at Roy, his face bloodied. “Where did you go?” the Agent half screamed at him.

“I turned invisible because I was embarrassed from you harassing me.” Roy said innocently, but both Kevin and Jessica knew what he had really done.

The Agent just looked at Roy with pure disgust, then turned around yelling, “Assembly over!”. Because no one, not even the Agent, saw Roy punch him, he could not prosecute.

Kevin Jessica and Roy headed out of the gym, as a group of freaks. "If any good has come out of this", Kevin said, "it's that we can finally be free".