I can’t believe I cried in front of him.  

Again!

I can’t even count the amount of times I have embarrassed myself in front of him and I’ve only known him for, like, three days!

“Here’s your schedule,” he says, handing me a piece of paper.  “In the morning, our classes start at 8:30.  You can get breakfast anytime at 6:00-8:30, if you want it.  An hour of Math, an hour of English, an hour of Science, and an hour of World History. Easy enough, right?  We have these classes together, in the same room all morning.  I’ll get you tomorrow to bring you to the classroom.  Then we have lunch break for two hours at 12:30.  You can do anything during that period.  After lunch break, we move to private lessons with the trainers.  Almost everyone, but us, has academics in the afternoon and fighting in the morning.  We start with an hour of fist fighting and sparring.  Then we do an hour and a half of power training.  I don’t know much about that since I don’t have powers, but I’m supposed to be able to help you with that.  At that point, it will be 5:00 and you have a half an hour of homeroom.  We have a one hour break before dinner at 6:30.  After that, you are free to do as you wish.”

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

He said something about no classes on weekends, but I was busy inspecting the pizza.  The dough looks wet and uncooked and the cheese looks fake and not even melted.  There’s barely any sauce!

“Ugh, this pizza is disgusting.  It’s all soggy.”

“Jamie, did you listen to anything I just said?”

“Yeah, yeah, something about no classes on weekends.”

“No!  No academic classes on weekends.  I’m trying to help you!  Pay attention.”

“Stop being so uptight, just let loose a little bit.”

“And how do you suggest I do that?”  He looked at me like he was challenging me.  I accept.

“Is there a way to get music in here?”

“Yes, the panel on the wall that controls the door, but you need the code.”

I stared at him expectantly, “Well, what’s the code?”

“I can’t tell you, but I can put it in for you.”

“Why can’t I know?”

“Only the guards are supposed to know.  Apparently it’s some way of making sure the guard is almost always with their partner.”  He puts in the code and goes to the music section, “Here you go.  What are you planning to do?”

I click the first song I see that I know, “Dance Party!” I shout.  I jump out of bed with the intention of dancing around the room, but I forget about my burn.  “Owwww,” I grip my side.

Thomas rushes to help steady me, but I push his hands away.  “I’m fine.  Let’s dance!”

“How?”  He shouts over the music.  

I rush to the panel to turn it up, “Just let loose, follow the music!”

I start to dance around the room and eventually Thomas slowly starts to move along to the beat.

“That’s it!” I shout, “Have some fun!”  I laugh loudly, seeing his version of dancing, “Follow what I do.”

I dance to the best of my ability and he follows suit.  When I look up at his face, I find that he is actually smiling.

“Look, you are having fun!”

“I guess I am.  Dance with me!”  Now that surprised me.  I guess if he’s having fun, it won’t be a problem.

“Sure!  Be careful with my burn though!”

He grabs my hands and we twirl around the room until we are dizzy.  When the song ends, we are still holding hands and breathing heavily, our foreheads touching.

“Did you have fun?”  I almost whisper, knowing he can hear me anyway.

“So much fun.  I need to do this more.”  The next thing he does surprises me the most tonight.  He actually giggles.  A light, warm sound vibrating through his chest.

“Thomas?”

“Yeah?”

“I feel weird.”  I could feel my body warming from the inside out.  Suddenly, my hands burst in warm flames.  I could tell they were not there to hurt anybody.  I played with the flames between my fingers.  

Thomas ran his fingers through the flames hovering my fingertips.  He met my eyes and held my hand in his.

I could tell my flames liked Thomas.  They did not burn him, instead, they wrapped around his hand as well.

Thomas leaned in closer and his lips met mine.  It was warm and soft, softer than I ever thought Thomas could be before tonight.

When he pulled away, he gasped and let me go, as if just realizing what he was doing.  He runs out of the room and I don’t even try to stop him, I’m more focused on my flames.  The farther Thomas got from me, the more my flames dissipated.