Rogue (Exceptional) (12 page)

       He pushed past them and came to Sabine, taking her hands in his.  They stared at each other in awkward silence for a moment—at least it was awkward for Ally.  Brooke, Andrea, and Alexis sighed loudly and stared at Stosh and Sabine with large, needy eyes.

       “Seriously, how much longer are we going to….”? Max walked up to the group, his sentence fading out when he saw Ally.  “What did they do to you?”

       Ally narrowed her eyes and watched his widen.

       “I didn’t mean it like that,” he walked over to her with a smile on his face. “You look different.”

       Brooke snorted. “I just made her acceptable for a social outing.”

       “I take back different,” Max peered at her with his bright, blue eyes. “You look beautiful.”

       Butterflies took flight in Ally’s stomach, or were her abilities struggling to work their way out?  The last guy to call her beautiful was Luke.

       “Relax.” Max must have sensed her unease. “I was giving you a compliment, not proposing to you.”

       “Proposing what?” she asked.

       Brooke snickered behind her and Max let out a loud laugh, throwing his head back. “Forget it, are you ready?”

       Ally nodded and fell into step behind him.  Along with the dark haired boy and Stosh, there were three other boys following the group.  She thought she might have heard the names Tristan and Mark thrown around, but she didn’t know which name went with which boy.  Stosh and Sabine strolled hand in hand behind her, while the blonde trio they were sharing a home with huddled at the edge of the group, speaking in whispers and giggles.

       They didn’t have far to go.  At the edge of their street, near where the edge of town met the woods, sat a large brick building.  The building stretched a few stories into the air, and was two streets wide.  Ally shivered as she looked up at it, unease sinking back into her stomach.

       “The Warehouse,” Sabine whispered.

       “The Warehouse,” Ally nodded.

       “The Clubhouse,” Max said from beside them.

       The others hurried ahead toward what appeared to be the main door.  A small line formed outside, but the people in it were being shuffled through the door quickly.  A soft drum came from the inside; a sound Ally couldn’t quite place. Nerves prickled up Ally’s back as they drew closer.  Images of the Warehouse flashed into her mind with each step she took:  Tighe dragging her inside, seeing Luke’s look when he first saw her, watching Luke and Tighe square off in the ring, and then discovering that she had Exceptional abilities.

       “Is everything okay?”

       Ally realized that she had stopped walking and was staring at the ground, caught up in her thoughts. Max had stopped in front of her, his hand reaching out toward hers.

       “Yeah,” she said as she threw on a fake smile.  “This place just reminds me of something from my past.”

       She caught up with him, tensing slightly as he reached his arm behind her, using his hand to guide her toward the door.  His hand rested in the middle of her back, not too low, but her skin tingled underneath her shirt.

       Walking into the Clubhouse was only similar to walking into the Warehouse in that it was packed with people.  Max grasped her hand and pulled her through the thick wall of people near the door.  They burst out on the other side and Ally gasped.

       The center of the Clubhouse was one big open space, and within it stood at least a hundred Ordinarys, all jumping or moving in rhythm.  The drumming she had heard from the outside was actually the beat of music, a loud and quick paced type of music she hadn’t heard before.  The sound cut through her, electrifying the blood in her veins.  She felt strangely alive.  Multicolored lights swirled around the room in a chaotic fashion.

       Stosh and Sabine stood to her left, looking just as awestruck.  Brooke, Andrea, Alexis, and the others had disappeared into the crowd.  Ally took a moment to look around.  Those who weren’t on the dance floor were standing in groups around it.  They talked and laughed, and some lifted bottles of liquid to their mouths.  Water, or something else maybe. 

       “What is this place?” Ally asked, realizing that her voice was lost in the music.  Max must have seen her mouth move because he drew closer to her.

       She hesitated, the smell of pine tree wafting off him.  “What is this place?” she repeated her question.

       Max leaned toward her.  His warm lips brushed her ear before he spoke and an uncontrollable shivered waved through her.  Ally self-consciously wondered if he noticed.

       “A dance club.  They were real popular in the old world.  We were able to salvage the equipment and music.  It’s open every Friday, all night long.”

       He was practically yelling in her ear but she could barely hear him.  She waited for the music to suddenly shut off, wondering how loud he would sound in the sudden silence.

       Ally leaned back toward his ear, careful to keep her own lips at a safe distance. “I’ve never seen anyone dance like that.”  She pointed at the crowd of Ordinarys in the center of the room.  She partially lied.  She had seen it before in movies.

       Max’s eyes sparkled.  “Dance with me.”  She read the words on his mouth, since he no longer leaned close to her.  He had both her hands in his now, pulling her toward the crowd.

       She pulled back on his hand, shaking her head no.  Now he leaned toward her, his lips brushing her ear once more. “Are you scared?”

      
Yes.
  She wanted to shout it at him, knowing he would read it on her lips rather than need to hear it.  Instead, she shook her head no and let him pull her toward the crowd.  Stosh had asked her to dig deep, to search for the Ally he had known at the beginning of summer.  The old Ally.  The Ordinary Ally.

       Ordinary Ally would have jumped at a chance to dance in a place like this.  She would have led the group into the building, bouncing in her step.  Exceptional Ally had grown cautious, and slow to trust.

       Max pulled her into the throng of people.  Sweaty bodies of girls and boys alike bounced off her sides and she used her free arm to shield her face.  The further they moved into the crowd, the more the music pulsed through her.  She could feel the others moving along with the beat, and in turn, wanted to move along with them.

       Max put his hands on Ally’s hips and she stiffened.

       “Relax,” he spoke by her head. “I just want to be your friend, Ally.”

Ally had never tried dancing to music like this before, but as her body swayed back and forth to the hypnotic
thump thump thump
of club music, she found that she was enjoying herself.  Dancing in the settlement had been erratic, and dancing with Luke had been nice, but this was fun.  Everyone around her moved to the beat in unison but also in his or her own way. A girl to her right was swinging her hips back and forth quickly, while a boy just behind her pumped his arms in time with the music.  Ally peered over at Sabine, who was spinning in circles with Stosh and had her head thrown back in laughter.

       Alexis and Andrea were standing on either side of a boy about their age, moving their hips around him in ways that made Ally's cheeks fill with heat.  She was thankful they were most likely already red from the warm temperature of her body.  Even though she didn't feel overly cold or hot like the Ordinarys did, the building was stifling and the air felt thick in her lungs. 

       "Nice moves," Max mouthed to her.

       She shrugged and swayed back and forth to the beat again, finding that she couldn't help herself.  She nodded her head in the direction of Alexis and Andrea. "Is it normal to dance like, well, like that."

       Max glanced over at them and then brought his eyes back to Ally, a small laugh coming from his mouth. "That is nothing compared to some of the girls around here. It makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it?"

       Ally rolled her eyes and turned away from him, not wanting to show him any of the anger she was feeling.  She was growing tired of the constant reminder of just how naïve she was about the outside world.  She had thought that she had an air of innocence going into the City, but being in the Wilderness was a large eye opener.  There weren't as many rules out here, and there was more freedom.  She should be basking in it, but the changes made her nervous.

       She felt Max's hand on hers again, and by the softness in his touch, she felt his unease.  Good.  She hoped he was second-guessing the banter he insisted on using with her, like they were old friends.

       "Your brother is waving us over," he didn't lean near her this time. Had he known she could hear him at a distance all along?

       She moved past him and saw that her brother had moved off of the dance floor and was surrounded by a group of Ordinarys.  She recognized the same group from the settlement, the ones she had met on her first night in Champaign. When reached the group, they all smiled and exchanged hellos.

       "Isn't this place amazing, though?" said Mabi. "I mean, it is like the settlement but more fun.  They have all these activities for us and we don't have to work every day."

       Stosh and Sabine listened with wide eyes while the others shared stories of all they had seen and done while here.  A few of them had taken a ride in a
canoe
, which was apparently a type of boat and let them float down the creek without getting wet.  They used it to catch fish for a meal and even camped out in the woods under fabric roofs called tents.  They shared stories of other parties they had been to, and how the boys and girls their ages were exciting and fun.

       Ally was starting to feel uneasy.  She wanted to pull Stosh and Sabine away from the group, grab Willow and Cody, and leave right now.  Sabine's expression was almost dreamlike as she listened to the others, and Stosh's grin grew wider and wider.  They were being sucked into this fantasy world, and they weren't going to want to leave once they had heard enough.  She reached forward to grab Stosh's arm but Max met her in the middle and pulled her away from the group, not stopping until they were standing outside of the building.

       "I know what you are doing," he said.  His expression was unreadable but Ally could see the tension rolling of him in from his posture.  His back and neck muscles were rigid.

       "Okay, what am I doing?"

       Max crossed his arms over his chest. "You're planning on running.  You see how much your brother and his girlfriend like it here and you want to take off. What about the talk with my Uncle? What about your ‘We’ll see’?"

       "They are becoming complacent!" Her voice grew louder. "We don't belong here.  We are supposed to move south and meet up with the others."

       Max threw his hands up in the air. "Why? Why do you
have
to keep moving?  Plans change.  You didn't expect to come upon a town like ours in-between but you have.  What are you afraid of?"

       "I'm not afraid," she growled.  She could feel anger welling up inside her again.  Why couldn't she control her emotions better these days?

       But he continued. "You are afraid you might like it here and that you might want to stay.  You want so bad for this
plan
of yours to work out that you are looking past anything good that comes along."

       "What good? You?" she shouted this time.

       Max clenched his hands into fists by his side. "Me, the others, Champaign.  We have a lot to offer here, Ally. You are letting your crazy emotions get in the way."

       Ally took deep breaths and counted to five. "Did you just call me crazy?"

       Max smirked now and Ally wanted so bad to reach over and slap the look off his face.  She intertwined her fingers and looked for anything other than Max to focus on.  What was wrong with her?

       Max pursed his lips and sighed, apparently battling over which words to say. "You aren't the first," finally left his lips.

       "First what?" she asked, her voice level back to normal.

       "The first Ordinary to change into an Exceptional later in life," he responded.

       She was quiet for a moment. "Who?"

"I’ve met others," he retorted, "and I can tell you that what you are feeling is normal.  Well, normal for the changes you are going through.  Let me guess, when you were starting the change, really before you even knew that you were becoming an Exceptional, your emotions were subdued, right? You probably didn't get angry when you should have, sad when you should have, and so on."

       Ally bit back the words that fell to her tongue, immediately thinking of several moments where her emotions had surprised her.  There were a few times where she should have been angry with Luke, and she had been, but she had gotten over it quickly.  She hadn't pushed the issues or lashed out, she just let it go.  There was her mother's death and how she mourned in quiet and without many tears, while her brother shed tears for hours over their loss. Even on the night when she escaped the City, she had trouble mustering up enough fear to back out of their plans, or any guilt for killing the Guards at the wall.  That is, until recently.