Prelude:
Gifted Abilities is a story about a girl named Kayden Juneire who becomes infected with superpowers, and, like any infection, it begins to spread to the people who Kayden loves, hates, and just meets up with.

Chapter One: Infected

Juniere is quite a weird last name for anyone claiming to be even partially human, but Kayden feels a sense of pride with hers. From the start, the Junieres made their origin in Italy. From there, the branch that Kayden comes from moved to Arkansas, and Kayden's immediate family moved up to Springs, New Jersey. The move was for the typically reason of her father getting a better job, but Kayden still did not want to actually live in the Springs.

"Here you go Kayden, it is all yours," Professor Byran said as he opened the door to let Kayden finish the rest of her science project. Professor Byran, being the schools one and only Biology teacher, was about 5'5''. He would always wear a button-up t-shirt with a pocket to the side that always held a pen, pencil, and highlighter. The one day that this was not true was the 23rd of September, about a month and half from Kayden's first day at the Springs. That day he wore a striped shirt and jeans with the reason that all of his button-up shirts were dirty and his wife was not able to get them from the dry cleaner yet.

"Why thank you," Kayden answered Professor Byran and moved to grab all of the items needed for her project, "I really do appreciate you letting me finish my project."

"It is no problem," Professor Byran assured her and turned around to leave.

"You're so cool," Kayden spurted out accidentally to only gain a slight redness on both of her cheeks.

"I am aren't I?" Professor Bryan agreed, "I'll be in my office for when you finish. With that, he left Kayden to finish what needed to be done.

Kayden continued to gather up supplies and prepare the chemicals in order to start her project while she simply laughed at how Professor Bryan was. He was her second favorite teacher so far at the Springs, only to be toppled by her PE coach that got her out of having to finish running the mile. On the first day of school, Kayden was amazingly quiet all day. She was not the best person to transition from one place to another, not that that is too unusual. It was not until her science class that Kayden said anything more than the answer to a specified question. It was after class. Kayden remembered. Professor Byran had just finished up the lesson, and the bell had rung. Kayden was the last one to leave, just like in every other class. However, this time it took her a little longer to leave for, when she looked out the door, she just so happened to notice the cutest guy in the world walking out of her class. The default girly instints rose up as Professor Bryan walked up behind Kayden. "I know he is so cute," Mr. Bryan joked, "if it wasn't that I was already married, I would probably go after him also." Professor Bryan waited about 20 seconds for Kayden to respond until he finally gave her a boost of enthusiasm, "He's single, and you're cute. And, his locker is right down the hallway. Not too sure how I know that, could possibly be that I work in this hallway."

"Shoot!" Kayden interjected, halting her memory. She had just spilled some of the chemicals all over the table, "Now, that is just perfect."

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"So.. I know you like the new girl," Drake nudged Scott over right before Scott opened his locker.

"She is not that new," Scott objected, "She has been here for a good two months, and, you seem to be talking about her far more than I ever have. Why don't you just date her?"

"I don't date," Drake corrected Scott, "I thought you would know that about me."

"Oh right, then the note to Kira was just a X and O note?"

Angry, Drake's defenses immediately went up, "I didn't know the answer, and Kira is some freak genius alright? There is nothing between us, so may you please stop trying to put something there. We are just friends, and one of us doesn't have a car."

Scott sarcastically laughed for a moment thinking of how great their dating relationship would be with Kira having a car and Drake not, but, after thinking for a moment, finally proposed, "I will stop talking about you and Kira getting together when you stop talking about Kayden and I. Deal?"

Drake could only stand perplexed. The last thing he wanted was for Scott to get off of the hook. Even though Scott was one of the best players on the soccer team, Drake was still stronger that him, miraciously. "You know I can't give in that easily," Drake told Scott as Scott closed the door to his locker and both of them proceeded to walk to Scott's car, "It would just be so perfect."

"The dance was last weekend," Scott reminded Drake.

"I am not talking about a meer dance. I am referring to an actual relationship, Scott. I really do need to help you expand your ways of thinking just a little."

Scott smiled, "How about this: let's talk about video games."

"I like video games," Drake said to himself, "and I do believe I am quite good at them."

"I have an idea. You know what we can do? We can get Kira and play Rockband."

Drake thought for a split second and finally said, "But there are four parts. We will definetly need another person." Pausing for a moment, Drake thought of the most perfect person in the world, "Why don't we get Kayden, Scott?", nudging Scott playfully in the shoulder.

Scott did not want to immediately object. Kayden would work well for the fourth person. "Well.. how we will get in contact with her? It is not like either of us have her phone number."

Drake's heart sunk for a moment and then immediately rose to the ceiling, "Oh my Scott! Look in there! Kayden's in the lab. Let's go and ask her, come on!"

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Write...More...

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<center>..:Auer Standing For Christ:..</center>
<center>Leaving...PM me if you want to keep in touch.</center>

"Hey Kayden!" Drake enthusiastically yelled, barging in the door to the lab.

"Woa!" Kayden yelled, "Dang it!" She had spilled a second batch of chemicals all over the table.

"Oh.. sorry. I will help you with that," Drake ran over to get grab some paper towels and help Kayden clean up her mess.

Sighing, Kayden grabbed the nearest clean beaker and started to pour the chemicals into it. She had one more test to do before she was done with her project, and, thus, she was not in the mood to talk to either Drake or the other person who she did not manage to look up and see who he actually was.

"It is ok Drake," Kayden told him with the most compassion and kindness she could possibly scrape up, "I don't need any help. After all, this is my project, not yours."

"No. No. No. I insist," Drake said, ripping off some paper towels and starting to place them over the spill, "This is my mistake, not yours."

Kayden could not argue with that logic, so she simply let Drake place paper towels over the mix of chemicals while she meerly picked them up.

"I'm sorry Kayden," Scott finally interjected, "Drake can be an idiot at times." He walked over and nudged Drake on the shoulder to show that he was now the one in control, "But, here is what we can do, I will give you my lab, so you just have to copy down the rest. I can see you are almost done, and I am pretty sure you don't want to start all over again."

Kayden simply stared at Scott for a moment. She had never registered the friendship between Scott and Drake before, but it all made sense now. Although, finally talking herself out of her daze, Kayden said, "That sounds good," and quickly grabbed her pencil and the sheet of paper Scott handed over to her, "Thank you very much."

"It is no problem," Scott said, turning to stare at Drake in victory.

The spill was all clean. Drake helped by placing paper towels all over the spill while Kayden picked them up and threw them into the trashcan with the small addition of putting some into a beaker.

"Wow," Kayden commented in shock while looking at her hands, "I probably should have been wearing gloves.... I am going to wash my hands. Well."

"I hope that stuff isn't toxic," Scott added, "Those chemicals have been on your hands for awhile."

"This is a high school Biology class. I am sure they don't have any chemicals that are really dangerous. None of us are professionals here, and even less of us are actually careful."

"You're right," Scott agreed with Kayden as she finished washing her hands, "Hey, would you like to join Drake and I with playing video games?"

"Really?" Kayden questioned with a slight smile appearing on her face, "When?"

"Um.. now," Scott answered, "I can give you a ride."

"Sounds great," Kayden giggled, "I'll grab my stuff."

"You see," Drake whisphered in Scott's ear, "It wasn't that hard."

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Kayden hurried over to the professor's room to drop off her copied lab report. Mr. Bryan gave Kayden a smile and wished her a happy rest of the day as she left the room and scuttled up to Scott and Drake.

"So, what are we going to play?" Kayden asked with half of her breath and trying desperately to gather herself into a status of being somewhat presentable to the opposite gender.

"Not sure yet," Scott said and was about to continue in his indecision until Drake gave him a nudge on the shoulder, "Either play rockband, watch a movie, gossip, do nails, hair, anything like that."

Taking Scott seriously for the first few moments, Kayden remained in a silent awkwardness until Drake finally broke it, "Ok... that was weird. Well, we are going to have to get Kira in here sometime. So, would you like to give her a call or should I?"

"Being that you are practically dating her.." Scott started to be interrupted with Drake saying, "Oh, shut up," and hitting Scott on the shoulder again.

It took a few more seconds of silence with Scott staring right at Drake for Drake to give in, open his phone and call Kira.

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"Yo Kira," Drake introduced the conversation after the phone rang for an abnormal amount of times, "How does going to Scott's to play video games, eat pizza, and watch movies sound?"

"Anything that can get me out of this English project would be wonderful."

"English project?" Drake questioned, "You mean our own Kira Marshall is actually completing her homework?"

"You aren't much better."

"Yes, that is true, but my rank in class isn't that great either. I still cannot stinking believe you are number two."

"That is because I am smart and teachers are dumb."

"If teachers were so dumb..."

"You are dumber."

Drake paused for a moment to soak in the deliberate insult Kira shot into his ear. "Now, that offends me..."

"...Good." Kira responded, "You can take revenge in the video games. See you all in a half an hour."

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Drake looked down at his phone in bafflement. Kira always hung up so quickly. It appeared to him that she did not want to talk to him, or, at least, that she enjoyed something with the intentional wounding of Drake's emotions.

"Seems like she got you bad," Scott laughed after she looked at Kayden to assure she that it was alright to go all out in "cracking up".

"Yeah..." Drake admitted, "I can't seem to ever have an actual conversation with her."

"You can try at my house," Scott assured Drake as he unlocked his car and climbed into the front seat, waiting for both Kayden and Drake to get into the car.

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Awesome....*Wants more*

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<center>..:Auer Standing For Christ:..</center>
<center>Leaving...PM me if you want to keep in touch.</center>

The ride over to Scott's house was quite dull. Kayden did not say a word, but Scott and Drake simply proceeded in conversation about what happened that day in English class.

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On a side note, what had happened was the Drake had not finished his homework assignment from the night before, not that that is too uncommon. However, instead of admitting defeat, he proceeded to convince the teacher that three was no such homework assignment after the teacher had collected all of the teachers.

Right now, in Scott's car, he believed that he was winning the conversation that, as everyone in the class had seen, he had completely lost. While, Scott was trying to point out to him that their English teacher was not as stupid as he may have wanted to believe.

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"Woa!" Kayden shouted once Scott had pulled the car into his driveway, "Is that Kira?"

"Nice car. I know," Scott responded as he turned off the car, unbuckled his seatbelt, and climbed out of the driver's door. Drake was already outside of the car failing, once again, to strike up a legitimate conversation with Kira.

"Are you going to get out?" Scott gently asked Kayden as she sat in shock inside of his car.

"Oh yeah," Kayden buzzed back into the real world and got out of the car.

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"So, when can I get a ride in your hot rod?" Drake rose his eyebrow and smirked as he glanced over Kira's car.

"Not today, and, at this rate, never," Kira responded, smacking Drake's hand the moment it touched her vehicle.

"Vicious," Scott laughed.

"Very much so," Kira smiled at Scott and then glared back at Drake.

Scott was about ready to say something and was taken back for a moment before he spoke, "Kira, are you wearing makeup?"

Unprepared, it took Kira a good 10 seconds to come back with a witty remark, "Yeah. What kind of inhumane twit do you take me for?"

"One that doesn't wear makeup," Scott responded and had a small glance at Drake, who had now become mesmorized with Kira's eye makeup, "Who's the guy?"

"Does there always have to be a guy? Why can't a girl express her beauty out of it having to be completely sexual?"

"I never said that," Scott rose his hands before him in a position of defense, "I am simply trying to say that this is quite uncommon."

Kira paused for a moment and eyed Scott over to see whether or not he was telling the truth and then told him, "Ted is coming tommorrow, and I need a trial run."

Scott broke out into laughter and then took himself back while Drake questioned, "Who's Ted?"

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*Loves your writing* Great work Smeag.

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<center>..:Auer Standing For Christ:..</center>
<center>Leaving...PM me if you want to keep in touch.</center>

"The polar opposite of you," Kira smirked and stuck her tongue out to Matt as she intrigued, "So, are we going to go inside or stay outside digging up my personal life, as fun as that sounds."

Scott shook his head and silently told each person in the group to come inside of his house. Scott's house was especially condensed in the entry way. There was a little front room.. and three seperate hallways. One lead upstairs to his room; another lead to the kitchen, and another lead to the living room. If one excluded the kitchen, his house was practically in the shape of a big circle (from the cause of an architect a little too in love with Geometry).

"This way," Scott told the group, but mainly for the benefit of Kayden, since Kira and Drake were already leading the way. Heading to the kitchen, Drake grabbed hold of a couple of two liters and four cups, taking all of the items into the living room. Kira rushed over and fiddled with the television until she could find her favorite music channel, she was still one of the few nerds that would actually participate in such an unpopular task. Lastly, Scott beckoned for Kayden to sit on the couch and wait as he ran upstairs to grab the gamepieces.

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