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He murmured against my ear, “I think I found another weak spot.”

I shivered, then turned and tilted my head so that his lips would meet mine. He kissed me several times, the last kiss lingering and deepening and making me forget where we were. I suddenly didn’t care about anything but being here with Cael…kissing him…his hands sliding over my arm…his fingers touching my face. I turned into him, grabbing his shoulders and pulling because he wasn’t close enough. He could never be close enough.

Two quick horn blasts froze us in place. “Attention. The following students will report to Lab 2: Alex, Brodie, and Aaliyah. Follow the blue arrows.”

The message repeated, and I hadn’t realized how tense I had become until Cael hugged me and said, “You can relax, Iggy.” He leaned his cheek on the top of my head. “I’m glad you weren’t called. I don’t want to let you go.”

We stayed that way for several minutes until a knock sounded on the open door. We both sat up and looked. Pippa’s freckles were highlighted as her face flushed. Beside her, Brian said, “We just wanted to tell you that there’s a rec center here. And it’s really cool.”

Pippa grinned. “I thought you might be interested in checking it out.”

I slid down off the ledge. “I don't know. Maybe another time.” I felt Cael’s warm body behind me, his chest brushing against my back. Every nerve in my body was so sensitive to his presence.

“There’s a mini movie theater, a basketball court, a rock climbing wall, a weight room, treadmills, ellipticals…”

“There’s even a pool,” Brian tacked on, excitement visible on his face.

“Sounds like Jensen is trying really hard to make everyone not hate him for the test he just made us go through,” I grumbled.

Pippa planted one hand on a cocked hip, tilted her head, and looked at me like she was about to scold a child. “Come on, Iggy. Don’t be a downer. I, for one, need this kind of distraction.”

I much preferred the distraction Cael had just given me. Then he put his hands on my shoulders and said, “Let’s check it out.”

I shrugged. “Okay.”

Pippa clapped her hands and Brian smiled. I supposed that after the kitten incident, she really could use some fun. She raced toward me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me away. “Do you swim? Clothing storage is open and I saw people getting bathing suits.”

I glanced behind me to find Cael talking with Brian but smiling at me as we walked down the hall . I had no idea how the subject had come up, but the two guys were discussing football. The normalcy of this scene just didn’t sit well with me. I couldn’t give into the idea that we were allowed to have fun. That wasn’t Jensen’s style. There had to be an ulterior motive, and I was somewhat disappointed that Pippa and Brian so easily threw caution to the wind.

We went to the same place we’d gone the first day to receive our scrubs, towels, socks, and undergarments. A woman behind the half-door that led to a giant closet greeted us with a smile – it was the first smile I'd seen on any employee's face. One by one, she asked for our sizes and handed us bathing suits, shorts, and Lycra fitness shirts — all in dark green. I guessed everything we wore would be the color of our scrubs.

The only other residence hallway, the one Wesley lived on, was perpendicular to mine, and I’d never been down it before. It led to the rec center and had three rooms on the right and three on the left. At the end of it was a wide open doorway. The first place we stepped into was a cardio room filled with a variety of equipment you’d expect to see at premiere gyms. Off to the right was a weight room, and straight back was a basketball court. We walked into the court and I was amazed to find that, beyond it, was a whole wall made of plexiglass. Behind that plexiglass was a big swimming pool.

This place was nothing like the Atlanta facility. I was stunned. But what kept me grounded was seeing all of the cameras that tracked our every move and conversation. They were everywhere, filming us from every angle. I was used to them, but they were usually less obvious than these.

Several people were already in the pool. On the far side, in a roped-off lap lane, a man cut through the water with powerful, overhead strokes and speed that told me he was probably a swimming champion. After all, we’d all once excelled at some kind of sport.

At the wall, he stood up and pulled back his goggles, and I recognized Ibram easily. Shayla was swimming casually nearby, wearing a green bikini that matched mine. Other students in the pool were wearing suits that matched their scrub colors.

Pippa hurried me into the changing room, and she rushed into one of the stalls while I examined every corner of the room, paranoid about cameras. I didn’t see any, but I changed in hurry anyway.

“I like the green bikini,” Pippa said in front of the full length mirror, turning sideways and pulling the stretchy material across her butt. Then she surprised me by doing some kind of complicated dance move.

“Wow,” I said. “What was that?”

“I used to be a dancer. Made money, did commercials, music videos and all sorts of stuff.” She stilled and stared at her reflection. “I really miss dancing.” Then she faced me with a smile. “You’ve got abs. How do you keep those?”

I looked down at my stomach. The muscles certainly weren’t as pronounced as they used to be, but I thought I still looked pretty good. “I like to exercise.”

She studied my figure a moment. “I’d say you’re a runner. Am I right?”

I smiled. “I played tennis. After I got that vaccine, I was sick for so long. When I got to feeling better, my body was still weak. It made me mad to know that the years I had spent working so hard to achieve my goals were wasted. I felt like the person I'd become was Jensen’s creation and not me. I hated that; I couldn't stand being that person. So I vowed to work to get back into the shape I’d been in before I was sick.” I clenched my fingers into fists. “I never want to be that weak again.”

Pippa stared at me for a moment, and then she nodded and turned away. I grabbed my clothes, put them into one of the lockers against the opposite wall, and then followed her back into the pool area. We each grabbed a towel off the stacks against the wall, and we tossed them on lounge chairs close to the part of the pool Cael and Brian were swimming in.

I turned my face up to the ceiling. The artificial sun was almost as good as the real thing, and I could even feel warmth radiating from ultra bright light. I loved it. Spending days living under nothing but fluorescent lamps got depressing after a while.

“You guys coming in?” Brian asked.

I looked down in time to see the spray of water just before it hit. I threw my hands up in useless protection while Pippa shouted at Brian.

“It’s kind of cold,” I said.

Cael swiped the water off his face. “Once you get used to it, it feels great.”

His gaze traveled down and lingered on my body, so I quickly jumped in. When I surfaced, I wiped the water out of my eyes and swam toward him. I had seen him without a shirt before, but he was even more beautiful than I remembered. His shoulders were broad, and every muscle was well-developed from years of mixed martial arts. Cael was the one who had abs to be jealous of – a stomach I’d call a ‘six pack’. Or in his case, an ‘eight pack’. On top of that, he double majored in biology and global public health. He was brilliant
and
beautiful. He seemed so perfect in every way that I felt suddenly nervous around him again. It was hard to believe I’d been kissing him just a short while ago.

He sank down into the water and swam to meet me half way. His hair, wet and slicked back, looked black instead of brown, and it curled around his forehead and ears. Water droplets clung to his face and dripped off his dark eyelashes. When I felt his arms slip around my waist, I couldn’t help but grin and hook my fingers around the back of his neck.

Cael spun us in a slow circle. “Maybe Pippa’s right. For a little while, let’s just forget where we are and why we’re here. Let’s pretend there’s nothing beyond the rec center door.”

“That’s not easy to do, Cael. Have you seen all the cameras? And I don’t know if it’s a good idea to let our guard down.”

He kissed my cheek. “I’m just enjoying this so much right now. I don’t want anything to spoil it.”

“Look out!” someone yelled. Our heads whipped around to see two guys in blue swim trunks run across the pool deck and cannonball into the water. The impact splashed water all over us and set us bobbing in the waves. They surfaced, laughing and smacking water into each other’s faces.

I couldn’t help but laugh. As they worked hard at shoving each other under the water and playing around, part of me was happy that we seemed to be able to make friends with each other, despite the strange circumstances. But what would happen if some of us didn’t get along with others? Would we be a threat to each other? I already knew Alex didn’t like me or Pippa for some reason. When Jensen had gone over the rules with us, he’d never said anything about whether or not it was okay to use our abilities outside the labs. And unless a rule was specifically stated, there would be no penalty for an action. At least, that’s the way it was back in the Atlanta facility.

The two guys headed for us. “Sorry we splashed you. I’m Devon, by the way.” He jerked a thumb toward his friend. “And he's Ezra.”

“No a big deal,” I told him. “I’m Iggy and this is Cael.” I pointed to our right. “Brian and Pippa.”

“How come you didn’t participate in the test this morning?” Devon asked Cael.

Ezra, the guy with longer, light brown hair, volunteered the answer. “He doesn’t have any power.”

Devon’s dark face took on a puzzled look. “Then why are you here?”

Cael responded, “I’m not quite sure.”

Ezra looked at me. “He’s your boyfriend, isn’t he? That's why he's here.”

I opened my mouth to deny it, but before I could speak, Cael said, “Yeah, I’m her boyfriend. But that doesn’t define the reason I’m here.”

“Yeah, Ezra,” Devon said. “I have a girlfriend back home, but she didn’t get to come.”

Ezra shrugged and started treading water. “Well, that’s what I heard,” he defended. “The students in green got to bring their boyfriends or fiancées or whatever.”

“Is that what wearing green means?” Pippa asked, swimming toward us.

“Maybe,” he replied.

“I’ll ask Alex. Maybe she knows,” Devon offered.

“Why would Alex know and not us?” I asked.

“She seems to know a lot of stuff,” he told me. “Hey! Do you guys wanna play water volleyball? They’ve got nets and stuff in that closet over there.”

“Sure!” Brian agreed and Pippa nodded.

I looked at Cael and he shrugged. I said, “Okay. We’re in.”

“I’ll get the stuff,” Ezra offered.

While they went for the equipment, I asked Cael, “Why did you say that you’re my boyfriend?”

He looked sheepish. “I’m sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have said that. Are you angry?”

“No. I just don’t know why you told them that.”

He looked away. “I don’t know. I guess…I just don’t want them hitting on you.”

I smiled. “Oh,” was all I could think of to say.

Devon had already rounded up other players and they were all heading for the shallow end. Two students I didn’t know swam up and introduced themselves as Val and Jax. They seemed nice enough, and they helped us set up the net in a smaller section of pool that jutted off from the shallow end. Then we divided up into teams. Devon said no couples on the same side, so Ibram, Pippa, and I were on one team, while Cael, Brian, and Shayla were on the other.

Pippa and I had never played pool volleyball, but no one seemed to care whether we were any good at it or not. The ten of us played for a long time, and I was so wrapped up having fun that I forgot we weren’t a bunch of normal people at some local fitness center. So when the buzzing feeling on my skin started, I froze, not even trying to hit the ball that smacked into the water right in front of me.

My teammates whined and complained about me spacing out. I looked at each of them, as well as the members of the other team, trying to figure out who was using their power.

“Pippa’s serve!” someone announced.

It didn’t seem like anyone in the pool was using or about to use, so I looked around the deck area. Someone tossed the ball to Pippa. She screamed and batted it away like it was a snake. At first, people laughed because they thought it was a joke. But then Pippa kept screaming and trying to swim away from the ball; the waves she was making in the pool caused the ball to crest towards her instead. She was so frantic that she began choking on the water. Brian dove toward her, and Val, who was close by, moved toward Pippa to help.

I spotted Alex and Brodie in the doorway, laughing quietly to themselves. “Stop it!” I shouted at them. Pippa was still screaming about the ball, so I climbed out of the pool and yelled, “You’re not supposed to use your power on other students!”

Alex scowled at me. “We’re not!”

“Yes, you are!” The closer I got to her, the stronger the buzzing on my skin until I felt like I was nearly vibrating. Then, suddenly, the sensation stopped. So did Pippa’s screaming.

“Don’t blame Alex because Pippa freaked out,” Brodie snapped at me.