3 Infirmary

James' life seemed to flash before his eyes. All those years spent putting down low-steps, just like he had been raised to do. All those nights struggling in his bedroom to step-up, the scathing words from his father screaming in his ears to get stronger and stronger. And for what? To look into a cripple's eyes that burned with cold determination, but also a hint of amusement and feel fear? He was paralyzed where he stood. But fear wasn't the only thing he felt. In that moment he felt one more thing: regret. His vision went black.

Waze walked calmly over to where James lay crumpled on the ground. She almost felt bad for him. She was like that somehow, never truly hating people until she knew what kind of life they had lived. On top of that, he had just been humiliatingly knocked unconscious by a kick to the face from a cripple. She wanted to say something smart, something funny, something to get back at them. To look cool, quite simply. That was one thing she'd always wanted. Despite her strength through her bullying, she wanted to stand in the spotlight and look strong. But before she could do that, she felt the energy ebb from her body before she collapsed on the ground.

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Waze's eyes flickered open to see the off-white ceiling of the infirmary above her. It was the same as always, she thought for a moment. Provoke the wrong person, get in a fight, get her ass beat, and wake up in the infirmary. But she paused for a second and remembered that this time was different. She glanced to the side and saw James laying on the bed looking positively wrecked. The left side of his face was swollen and his nose was... not the same as before. His mouth was hung slightly open and his eyebrows were cinched in pain. She felt a flicker of satisfaction. She had done that! To a high-step! Never mind the fact that her body ached in a million different places and she could still taste blood in her mouth. She stopped for a second and thought. She had done that? To a high-step? After a moment of contemplation she jolted up to a sitting position. What in the hell had happened? She could remember it now, dodging his projectile, the blue flames sparking off of her body and then- oh god. Oh god she had kicked a high-step in the face. Before she could ruminate over it any longer the nurse glanced past the wall dividing the beds from her desk and her face brightened.

"Oh you're awake! How do you feel?" Waze could see the slight fear and confusion on the nurse's face as she spoke.

"I'm fine Ms. Eldrich... what exactly happened after I passed out?" She wasn't fine and that was an outright lie, but it had become a habit of hers to tell everyone she was fine no matter what. Her mother didn't need the excess worrying.

"Well, once I was done being shocked at the news, I went down and hauled you upstairs while some friends of James' carried him up. Oh, and your father is here to pick you up. I called your mother but she didn't pick up so I called him instead." Waze cringed. She was partially glad that her mother didn't pick up, it meant she was sleeping for once but at the same time it meant that...

"Yo, Waverly! Heard you made quite a splash!" It took everything Waze had not to walk out of the room. Her mother's boyfriend peeked out from behind a wall and shot her a smile. It's not that he was a bad guy, which he kind of was, she had just grown to dislike most of her mom's boyfriends. Waze wished it could just be her and her mom forever. But her mother got lonely, a loneliness Waze couldn't fix, and so Waze sucked it up and acted like they were her stand in fathers. On top of that, she hated anyone who used her full name. And he knew that.

"Hey, Josh. Thanks for coming to get me, I think I'm ready to leave now though. Can we go home?"

"Not so fast.. we're making a stop at the reading shop first. You've never been read right? I can't believe you've been hiding an ability all along. Your mother's gonna flip." Josh laughed and shot Waze an icy look.

Anger burned in her chest. Like most of the world, her mom's boyfriends had discriminated against her because she was a cripple. They never said anything outright, but it was in the little things. The urges to go study because 'thats all you have'. The forgiveness they asked for because 'a person like you wouldn't understand'. Fine. Let's go to the reading place. She could feel that all of the energy that had once filled her had faded away. If her hunch was correct, her step would be read as a zero. Waze also knew for a fact that this gift had not been here her entire life because she most definitely would have used it. She thought back to her dream from last night. In it she had felt the same warmth that she had felt burn through her when she had fought James. Before she could respond, a voice came from beside her.

"W-what happened..." a groan barely escaped James' lips as he propped himself up on one elbow. Upon making eye contact with the now sitting Waze, he frantically scooted back until he hit the wall.

"Y-y-you..!" he stuttered out as he pointed a shaking finger at Waze.

"Relax. Fight's over and even if I wanted to I couldn't do anything right now." She wasn't quite sure why she knew that, but she did. The power was a faint light in the distance that she couldn't quite reach.

James' fingers flew to his face before he winced in pain. He paused and stared at her for a moment, before flopping back down. He then glanced over at Waze from the side of his vision before rolling over completely. Waze stared at the sight slightly confused, but when no more word was heard from the lump now called 'James' she turned to Josh who had already gathered her stuff.

"Let's roll! We got an gift to measure!" Waze groaned. She waved goodbye to Ms. Eldrich and slowly yet painfully climbed out of the bed. She knew that this whole gift-measuring thing probably wouldn't leave them knowing much more. In fact, she hoped it didn't. She didn't want Josh knowing anymore than he already did. There was one person, however, that she could turn to for help in times like this. Waze was going to see a different reader tonight.