BXBX NOVEL Chapter 373 Her Grasp Weakens
Lee Seng had scooted over and tapped the bed. Olivia had hesitated. She debated whether or not she should sit next to Lee Seng. She didn't know if he would explode or not. She glanced at him and watched him pat the bed.
"Come sit." He told her. His face was slightly red from what happened earlier and that just made Olivia turn away. She nodded and moved over and sat at the edge of the bed, near the foot of the bed. Nicole and Scarlet had positioned themselves in front of them. Nicole folded her arms like she always did while Scarlet kept her arms at her sides.
"Alright, let's get down to business." Nicole said as she shifted her weight onto the other leg.
"We were told that you brought Lee Seng to the hospital. Why did you bring him here?" Scarlet asked.
"We met Dr. Valentin during the school week. He was attending to some business in the Third Year building so he met up with Manny. We happened to be with him, so he decided to tell us all if Lee Seng were to have any problems, to bring him to the First Year building." Olivia explained. "So, I brought him here after he passed out at the house."
"And you just came alone?" Nicole asked. "Why didn't someone else come with you? Why not any of the boys? If I remember correctly, there were four boys and two girls in your team, correct?"
"Yes, you're right, ma'am." Olivia nodded. Lee Seng looked at her and wondered the same thing.
'Couldn't she have just brought one of the others with her?' Lee Seng wondered.
"Y'see…" Olivia looked down at her hands. "Ever since November, things have been really tough for the whole group. Lee Seng went missing, was found, had surgery, had to have physical therapy, and came back in the span of a couple months." She looked up at the two Numbers. Scarlet was listening to Olivia while Nicole seemed like she was more interested in Lee Seng.
"We were all told of his situation from Manny. November caused a rift amongst a lot of us." Olivia finally spoke the truth.
'A rift? That's what that was?' Lee Seng connected the dots. He slowly nodded and continued to listen as Olivia cleared her throat.
"What happened in particular, if you don't mind me asking?" Scarlet asked.
"Manny wanted to do anything to save Lee Seng. He was willing to break orders to do so. Ritsuka wanted to do everything in his power but also follow the rules. He was willing to break a couple to get a chance and we got it, but that was torn apart after Manny freaked out. Evan was completely against it. It took a lot of convincing, but he even allowed it.
"Liz and I wanted to help, but we didn't want to cause anymore trouble. We went along with it because Lee Seng's apart of our team. When Manny freaked out on the Third Floor of the caverns… We were sent back to the dorms. Ritsuka blamed Manny for screwing up the mission. For screwing up our chance on finding Lee Seng and bringing him back. I guess you could say it was, in a lot of ways, our only way to say 'we care enough about Lee Seng to want to save him ourselves.' Ritsuka and Manny fought a lot ever since then. It wasn't until Lee Seng woke up and Manny heard about it that we had to talk about it." Olivia explained.
Lee Seng didn't realize how much of an impact he had on the group. He watched Olivia fold her hands into each other a couple of times as she continued to think about what to say next.
"So your team hasn't recovered from the incident." Nicole commented. Lee Seng looked at her and saw her scrunch her nose like she was already trying to move on from the subject.
"Currently, yes." Olivia looked up at her. Her experssion grew a little more serious. "Because Ritsuka and Manny couldn't be civil, I took Lee Seng here, myself. I honestlyt don't think they understand what they've done and in front of Lee Seng, at that."
"You think Lee Seng is that important to your group?" Nicole scoffed.
"Number One." Scarlet looked at her. Olivia narrowed her eyes.
"What do you mean by that? He's just as important as anyone else."
"But it seems like Lee Seng really is a 'core piece' of all of you. Your team had a chance and blew it. One of them threw a fit so Number Ten gave you guys a second chance and you still blew that. No wonder why Manny and Miss Walt's academic scores dropped. It's because they chose to stick with him."
"Number One, you should really watch wh—" Lee seng began to say when Number One's prism eyes glanced in his direction. Nicole seemed irritable. More irritable than he usually remembered her being.
'Is she on period or something?' Lee Seng thought. Her prism eyes stared at him for awhile until Olivia stood up.
"We all chose each other." Olivia talked back to Nicole. "Being a team doesn't mean its going to be rainbows and unicorns all the time. You should especially know that out of everyone here, Number One. You're the leader of the Numbers, right?"
'She shouldn't have done that.' Lee Seng and Scarlet thought. Nicole took a couple steps forward as her prism eyes swirled.
"What did you just say to me, Miss Ok?" Nicole asked, sharply. Olivia gulped and took a brave step forward.
'Don't.' Lee Seng thought. 'Move another step.' He watched Olivia take another step.
"You're mere novices when it comes to running a team. Staying with Lee Seng stops your chances of even doing well at the Academy. You should let him fend for himself. He'll only hold all of you back, including your dreams." Nicole stopped. "And if I can recall, yours is to—"
"Enough, Number One!" Lee Seng shouted.
"Sit." Nicole pushed him down with her telekentic force. He sat down as he felt her crawling in his head. "And stay there."
"To figure out if my parents actually really care for me at all by graduating from the Academy?" Olivia answered. Scarlet and Lee Seng looked at her. They both didn't think another student would stand against Number One. "Yes, that's part of the dream, but my true dream is to help others. Lee Seng has been nothing but nice and considerate to me and everyone else, even on his bad days. When he's a little more distant on those days, it doesn't mean I don't like him any less. He's apart of the team and if you want to bash my team, then you better be ready to defend yours, Ms. Volkov."
Nicole lifted her hand and squeezed her hand in the air. Olivia could feel the choke feeling growing but she simply shook it off and moved closer. Nicole grabbed at her and pulled her in.
"You don't even know what happened. Stay out of it." Nicole breathed down Olivia's face.
"And you don't even know what happened either, so take your own advice and stay outta it, Ms. Volkov." Olivia felt Nicole toss her across the room with her telekentic push. Lee Seng shouted as he watched her fly past him.
"You!" Nicole pointed at Lee Seng. He felt her grip in his head grow stronger. "You trying to make perfectly good students stand against me? Is that what you want?" The tightening sensation grew stronger. He began to feel his head spin like he was having vertigo.
"Enough!" Scarlet shouted.
"Shut up." Nicole ordered. Scarlet's eyes filled with the prism colors easily and she stood still, quietly watching as she couldn't do anything. Nicole moved forward and grabbed Lee Seng's shirt and pulled him onto his feet. "You're done at my school. I'll let your father know you failed this place. I have no time for you."
"Enough of your bullshit, Nicole." Lee Seng grunted through the pain. He could feel his grasp growing as he fought against her control. His hand shook has he slowly pulled them up towards Nicole's wrist. "When are you going to let go of the pain? Nikolai is dead! He will never be here to pull you out of your bullshit!"
"ENOUGH!" A shock wave erupted out of Nicole. Lee Seng, Scarlet, and the bed went flying. Olivia watched the bed fly at her.
'I can't move my hands!' Olivia thought. Lee Seng snapped out of the grasp and froze the bed in mid-air as he grabbed Nicole's hand. Nicole's face grew in shock.
"You should—"
"Should be what? Don't you know I have the strongest willpower against your silly powers, One?" Lee Seng pulled her hand off of him and shoved her backwards. He watched her stumble back as he turned and tossed the floating bed away from Olivia, clattering it into the wall opposite to him.
"You okay, Olivia?" Lee Seng asked as he turned to jog after her. She could feel Nicole's effect shatter as Lee Seng crouched down to check for any wounds.