Bouncer Round 6 #12

Title: POWER STRUGGLES


Genre: Young Adult Speculative Fiction 


Word Count: 85,000

QUERY:

It’s hard to focus on mastering telekinesis when you run the risk of being labelled a monster.
 

Sixteen-year-old Melody doesn’t expect much at Camp Awakening except absolute torture. After all, it’s a hardcore power-training boot camp. The only good thing about the place is Jonas, the junior trainer who makes her almost forget why she’s there.

But if she lets down her guard, the mind-readers will see that she’s a freak with two powers instead of one. And anyone with multiple powers can only be power-draining Psyfons—the monsters that killed her father and the reason she’s out in the middle of nowhere learning how to attack.

When a few trainees collapse, Melody must choose between saving them and protecting herself, and suspects that Psyfons have infiltrated the camp. The dizziness Jonas makes her feel whenever they’re together starts to become less romantic and more suspicious. Is it possible that the boy she’s falling for could be one of the monsters who killed her father?

FIRST 250:

The girl next to me on the bus had ignited several small fires with her bare hands, as if that made her special.

Our destination was Camp Awakening. Our purpose: to master our powers in two weeks. Get it right, you could end up a hero. Get it wrong, you could end up dead.

I wish I were kidding about the dead part.

I stared at the smoke drifting from the girl’s fingertips. Sure, it was freakishly entertaining, but we didn’t need open flames while crammed into a non-air-conditioned school bus on a sticky July day with nearly fifty other sixteen-year-olds. And it wasn’t like she was the only one on board who could do it.

“Stop it, Erika, you’re gonna get us in trouble,” a girl across the aisle whispered. “There’s no smoking on the bus.”

“Or burning,” I added.     

     

Erika rubbed her fingertips on her charred jeans and smirked. “What are they gonna do, toss me off? It’s up to them to make sure we get ‘proper’ training,” she said. “And I obviously can’t control my power at the moment.”

Power. As in the singular form.

“Hey blondie.” The guy in front of me turned around. “I think you’re hot, too."

I frowned. “Excuse me?”

“I can read you.” He winked.

“You can?” I glared at him and fought off a wave of panic. “How about now?”

“Let’s see.” He shut his eyes. “You think I’m… absolutely doable?”

A girl behind me giggled.

“No, but she does.”